Why Support Us?
The short ANSWER — The What
Our students compete in the annual RoboMaster Competition, the biggest and most advanced collegiate robotics competition in the world with around 400 universities participating worldwide. Students in the team are exposed to high precision manufacturing, custom designed PCB and control systems, computer vision, artificial intelligence, and other advanced engineering skillsets in order to develop a fleet of 7 computer vision enabled robots all from scratch. The landscape is highly competitive, but we strive to become an internationally recognized team with your support!
The Actual Reason — The Why
Our organization was founded with a simple purpose: To cultivate a passion for robotics at Purdue.
We focus on “Building. Better. Boilerbots.” which means we strive to improve both the robots and individuals in the team. By exposing students to advanced skillsets beyond the existing cirriculum through competitive robotics, our organization has become a platform for passionate students learn to become better engineers and leaders.
Because of our unique focus on building better people, not just robots, our unorthodox approach of solving problems has propelled our organization to become the largest and most advanced student robotics organization here at Purdue.
How did it happen? So first a little context…
Well first our competition is highly complex, so students across all engineering majors have to work together to integrate all aspects of the robotics development process. Students in our team are exposed to high precision manufacturing, custom designed PCB and control systems, computer vision, artificial intelligence, and other advanced engineering skillsets in order to develop a fleet of 7 computer vision enabled robots all from scratch.
So yes, we have very complicated engineering problems. However…
“If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.“
So if our leadership simply, “fixed the problem” whenever they come up, students never get the opportunity to learn and become better engineers. Instead of giving students the fish, we focus on “fixing the people” to teach them how to catch fish. Despite the latter being costly and bothersome, it proved to be a robust long term strategy for growth since we’re producing better engineers everyday. Therefore, we seek your support to help us cultivate more passionate engineers to become the true RoboMasters!
Where are my donations going?
The financial support provided to us will be directed into 3 key areas:
Running educational and onboarding programs to teach members advanced engineering skillsets.
The research and development of the computer-vision enabled robots for our competition.
For our team to travel to competitions or to host competitions at Purdue.
The following link will direct you to our team’s donation page on Purdue for Life Foundation
“The Purdue for Life Foundation, structured within the Purdue Research Foundation, is an independent organization that acts for the benefit of Purdue University. Purdue Research Foundation has 501(c)(3) non-profit tax-exempt status; our federal tax ID number is 35-1052049.”