Team Atlas with the Judges Design Innovation Award. Photo credit: NASA Lunabotics.
By Barbara Aleksandrowicz
ROBOTS ON THE MOON: A HUGE SUCCESS FOR
POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE OF NEW YORK UNIVERSITY
STUDENTS IN NASA COMPETITION
NASA Third Annual Lunatics Mining Competition took place May 21-26, 2012 at
Kennedy Space Center, FL. 58 teams competed in the Competition. Team Atlas, a
group of NYU-Poly students won the Judges Innovation Award, placed third in
Team Spirit Contest and sixth in the Design Competition. Their project also
received NYU-Poly’s 1st Paul Soros Prize for Creative Engineering.
The Winners of the NASA's Third Annual Lunabotics Mining Competition were:
Joe Kosmo Award for Excellence (Grand Prize)
First Place - The University of Alabama in collaboration with Shelton State Community College
Second Place - Iowa State University in collaboration with Wartburg College
Third Place - West Virginia University
On-Site Mining Award
First Place - Iowa State University in collaboration with Wartburg College
Second Place - The University of Alabama in collaboration with Shelton State Community College
Third Place - Milwaukee School of Engineering
Judges Innovation Award
Polytechnic Institute of New York University
Efficient Use of Communications Power Award
Iowa State University in collaboration with Wartburg College
Best Use of Social Media
Universidad de Los Andes of Colombia
Slide Presentation and Demonstration Award
First Place - The University of Alabama in collaboration with Shelton State Community College
Second Place - West Virginia University
Third Place - Universidad de Los Andes of Colombia
Outreach Project Report Award
First Place - Iowa State University in collaboration with Wartburg College
Second Place - Montana State University - Bozeman
Third Place - John Brown University
Systems Engineering Paper Award
First Place - Montana State University - Bozeman
Second Place - John Brown University
Third Place - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Team Spirit Award
First Place - The University of Alabama in collaboration with Shelton State Community College
Second Place - Instituto de Astrobiologia Colombia IAC
Third Place - Polytechnic Institute of New York University
About NASA's Third Annual Lunabotics Mining Competition
NASA's Third Annual Lunabotics Mining Competition is a university-level competition designed to
engage and retain students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). NASA will
directly benefit from the competition by encouraging the development of innovative lunar excavation
concepts from universities which may result in clever ideas and solutions which could be applied to an
actual lunar excavation device or payload.
The challenge is for students to design and build an excavator, called a Lunabot, that can mine and
deposit a minimum of 10 kilograms of lunar simulant within 10 minutes. The complexities of the
challenge include the abrasive characteristics of the BP-1, the weight and size limitations of the
Lunabot, and the ability to telerobotically or autonomously control the Lunabot from a remote mission
control center.
This year the scoring for the mining category was not based primarily on the amount of material
excavated in the allowed time but instead required teams to consider a number of design and
operation factors such as dust tolerance and projection, communications, vehicle mass, energy/power
required, and level of autonomy.
Over 50 teams from all over the world are registered to compete this year for the coveted grand prize,
the Joe Kosmo Award for Excellence.
Who is eligible?
Undergraduate and graduate student teams enrolled in a U.S. or international college or university are
eligible to enter NASA’s Lunabotics Mining Competition. Design teams must include: at least one
faculty with a college or university and at least two undergraduate or graduate students.
NASA has not set an upper limit on team members. A team should have a sufficient number of
members to successfully operate their Lunabot. The maximum number of registered teams has been
reached for 2012.
What are the requirements?
Teams will compete in up to five major competition categories including: on-site mining, systems
engineering paper, outreach project, slide presentation (optional), and team spirit (optional).
Additionally, teams can earn bonus points for mined and deposited BP-1 in the competition attempts,
having multidisciplinary teams, and collaborating between a majority institution and a U.S. Minority
Serving Institution (MSI). All documents must be submitted in English.
What can teams win?
The team with the most points from all categories will win the grand prize, the Joe Kosmo Award for
Excellence, and will receive the Joe Kosmo Award for Excellence trophy, team certificates for each
member, a $5,000 team scholarship, and up to $1,000 travel expenses for each team member and
one faculty advisor to participate at one of NASA’s remote research and technology tests. Awards for
other categories include monetary team scholarships, a school trophy or plaque, team and individual
certificates, and KSC launch invitations.
More info http://www.nasa.gov/offices/education/centers/kennedy/technology/lunabotics.html.
2012 Competitors
International Teams
BRAC University – Bangladesh, Islamic University of Technology – Bangladesh, Military Institute of
Science and Technology – Bangladesh, Concordia University – Canada, Laurentian University –
Canada, York University – Canada, Instituto de Astrobiologa Colombia IAC – Colombia, Universidad De
Los Andes – Colombia, Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra – India, GITAM University – India, Kirori
Mal College – India, MPSTME, NMIMS – India, Saveetha University – India, Srinivasan Engineering
College – India, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana – Mexico, Politechnica University of Bucharest –
Romania, Hanyang University - South Korea.
US Teams
Arizona State University; Auburn University;, California State University, Chico; California State
University, Sacramento; Colorado School of Mines; Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona
Beach Campus; FAMU/FSU College of Engineering; Florida Institute of Technology; Florida
International University; Iowa State University; ITT Technical Institute; John Brown University; Miami
University; Middle Tennessee University; Milwaukee School of Engineering; Modesto Junior College;
Monroe Community College; Montana State University – Bozeman; Montana Tech of the University of
Montana; New Mexico State University; Polytechnic Institute of NYU; South Dakota School of Mines
and Technology; Temple University; Texas A&M International University; Texas A&M University Corpus
Christi; The University of Akron; The University of Alabama; The University of North Carolina at
Charlotte; The University of Texas Pan American; University of Arkansas; University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign; University of Nebraska – Lincoln; University of New Hampshire; University of
North Dakota; University of North Florida; University of Portland; Virginia Tech; West Virginia
University.
About Team Atlas
Team Atlas was founded at NYU-Poly in November 2010 under the leadership of current team member
Nicholas Cavaliere, a multi-talented mechanical engineer. The team participated in Lunabotics 2011
with modest success: they beatboxed, exhibited a strong outreach and systems engineering program,
casually socialized with NASA’s top engineers, and developed a winning agenda for next year’s
competition. Specifically, they started designing and planning for the May 2012 competition in May
2011 under the leadership of Stanislav Roslyakov, a civil engineer who can rock a hard-hat but
effortlessly works the ‘mechanical engineer’ look too.
Atlas’s team members boast a complemental blend of diverse skills and backgrounds; unsurprisingly,
the team hails from the melting-pot capital of the world: New York City. The team of just eight
students is small, yet skilled. Senior team members include Stanislav, Nicholas, Jack, and Jessica.
Joining the team this year are Atlas’s wireless & controls specialists: Yusif, Salvatore, Mattias, and
Ryan.
Atlas is ecstatic to be sponsored by SpaceX, Verizon, BatterySpace, and MakerBot. The team’s robot is
100% designed and manufactured by students at NYU-Poly. To educate on and promote STEM and
space exploration, the team has reached out to numerous schools throughout New York City.
Team Atlas during NASA's Third Annual Lunabotics Mining Competition
Photo credit: Dr. Alexey Sidelev
Photo credit: Jessica Aleksandrowicz
About NYU-Poly
Polytechnic Institute of New York University (formerly Polytechnic University), an affiliate of New York University, is a comprehensive school of engineering, applied sciences, technology and research, and is rooted in a 157-year tradition of invention, innovation and entrepreneurship: i2e. The institution,
founded in 1854, is the nation’s second-oldest private engineering school. In addition to its main
campus in New York City at MetroTech Center in downtown Brooklyn, it also offers programs at sites throughout the region and around the globe. Globally, NYU-Poly has programs in Israel, China and is an integral part of NYU's campus in Abu Dhabi.
The 2011-2012 PayScale College Salary report ranked NYU Poly top eight among all four-year colleges in the nation by starting salary potential and mid-career salaries, behind California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in first, Harvey Mudd College in second, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in third. NYU Poly was also ranked seventh in Top Private Universities by Salary Potential.
Congratulations to Team Atlas, NYU-Poly and the Organizers of the Annual Lunabotics Mining
Competition!
Sources: www.nasa.gov/lunabotics, http://www.poly.edu, www.facebook.com/lunabotics,
http://ustream.tv/nasaedge
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