ADA, Ohio (WLIO) - These Ohio Northern Polar Bears are gearing up for a football game, but they aren't the ones playing. These students are participating in the 13th annual Collegiate Robotic Football Conference playoff and finals, putting their robots up against other universities of the midwest.
The students group up in teams to design and build their robots and program them to play football, working together to keep things going as planned and troubleshoot any issues that come up during the game.
ONU sophomore Ian Rieman played football up to high school, and found that this competition was perfect for him once he reached college, to bring his love of engineering and sports together, and gain some experience along the way.
"As an engineer, there's a lot of learning experiences in this," said Rieman, who is also the coach for the team. "Not every bot works on the first try, and that's a great lesson for me and all the other students that are working on these bots. It's a lot of work, and you know, it's so rewarding."
One of the sponsors of the event, Misumi USA, is a supplier and manufacturer of parts for automation, dies and molds, and more, and Ohio Northern used some of their parts in their robots. Those with the company say it's great to see the next generation of engineers and programmers working together through this competition.
"They're learning not just the engineering skills, but the teamwork and the socialization, the budgeting, the prioritization, time management, crisis management," said John Williams, technical training manager with Misumi USA. "You're in a battle for first place, your your bot goes down, how do you deal with it? Get them back on the line. Get them back playing, just like real football players. You've got to deal through injuries - they've got to deal with robots that are crashing and breaking, and dealing with stuff like that too. So they're learning all kinds of different life lessons."
Ohio Northern faced off against Notre Dame in the finals on Sunday afternoon, winning it all, 57 to 25.
You can read more about Ohio Northern's robotics program on their website. More information about the Collegiate Robotic Football Conference can be found here.
