South West Illinois News

The Southern Illinois University Carbondale robotics team has emerged as a model of consistency.

For the second year in a row, the five-member team shined brightly at a national engineering competition, dominating three out of four categories and winning the competition.

Led by faculty adviser and professor of technology Bruce DeRuntz, the team competed at the Association of Technology, Management and Applied Engineering’s robotics contest in Cincinnati over a three-day period in early November.

The team, Nate Johnson, Nick Sjoberg, Lincoln Kinley, Ryan Guss and Paul Schumacher, finished first in the obstacle course, presentations and was tabbed overall champion.

Their mastery came on the heels of the team earning top scores at last year’s event in Orlando, Florida. At that event, the team bagged nearly half of all the possible points, adding Best Electronic Control, Methodology, Best Fabrication/Innovation, Best Poster, Best Technical Presentation and Audience Favorite to their list of honors.

In Cincinnati, the team turned to their trusty custom-designed-and-built robot “Winston,” named in honor of a recently retired and well-known bagel man in Carbondale, to best teams from Eastern Illinois University, the University of Texas at Tyler, Iowa State University, Alcorn State University, East Carolina University, Ohio University, Ohio Northern University and Mississippi State University.