The University of Waterloo NanoRobotics Group (UW_NRG) is an undergraduate team that competes internationally in the annual Mobile Microrobotics Challenge. The challenge is comprised of two separate competitions that utilize a micro-robot less than 400 microns in size: approximately the width of a human hair! In the mobility competition, teams navigate their robot through an obstacle course as quickly as possible. In the microassembly competition, the robot has to organize objects into a densely packed array.
Our team is composed of more than 40 multidisciplinary engineering students. Currently, we are looking for committed students to join our dynamic teams in business, marketing, software, or one of the four technical teams. No experience is necessary. As long as you have the determination to learn, our seasoned members will teach you what you need to excel, all the while providing an opportunity to make some good friends along the way. We are looking for dedicated students that are willing to give it their all. We have opportunities for you to help in robot design, fabrication, and testing. All disciplines are welcome; designing our own apparatus requires both mechanical and electrical collaboration. Controlling the robot is all done in house, requiring clever coding and electrical interfacing. Finally, robot fabrication is all chemistry! The more you put in, the more you will learn, succeed, and enjoy. As a bonus, UW_NRG sponsors a few of its first year members to participate in the International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) every year.
UW_NRG annually competes at ICRA, which is hosted by the IEEE at different locations around the world. In the past three years, UW_NRG has placed first in both competitions with its flagship EMMA (ElectroMagnetic Micro Actuation) robot. This year, we are looking to compete with some of our other robots, which are driven by piezoelectrics, microfluidics and quantum locking. We are also participating in numerous conferences to spread the word on nanotechnology.
If you’re interested in learning more, then come visit our booth during Junkyard Wars, and be sure to attend the recruitment information session that we will be hosting in September. Get in touch with us at www.uwnrg.org or on our Facebook page, facebook.com/uwnrg. We hope to see you soon!
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