On Feb. 3, the UNI chapter of the Association of Technology Management and Applied Engineering visited East High School in Waterloo to share their passion of robotics with technology-loving students and surrounding the community. Matt Mullesch, senior electrical engineering and technology major and president of the chapter said that the group had two goals in mind when they arrived at East High.

 “One of [the goals] was to promote UNI, specifically the department of technology and the electronic engineering program…but also to just collaborate, show them [the students] what we’ve done,” Mullesch said.  

Once UNI’s ATMAE group arrived at East High and introduced themselves to the students, they allowed the robotics class, taught by UNI alumnus Vaughn Gross, to introduce themselves and talk about their future goals in robotics. Mullesch and his group then presented their own competition-worthy robot, which performs four functions including kicking a field goal, completing a 20-yard dash, lifting 10 lbs., and picking up golf balls in a marathon-like course. 

The students of East High then presented their own mechanical wonders they had created. 

“We let them demonstrate that to us, and let them talk about some of the hurdles that they’ve overcome, and some of their problem-solving techniques,” Mullesch said. 

UNI’s chapter of ATMAE hopes to attend more challenging robot competitions in the future, and because of this, the group is actively recruiting members of all majors with a passion for technology. 

ATMAE’s involvement at East High School provided the students a glimpse at the bright future of robotics and engineering technology 

“It was really nice to see how excited these kids were, and how confident some of them were about what they wanted to do. A lot of them said ‘I want to do robotics,’” said Mullesch.