Two Georgia Tech RoboBoat Teams made it to the finals in the 4th International RoboBoat Competition, held June 9-12 in Virginia Beach. Georgia Tech Aerospace System Design Laboratory placed 3rd and the Georgia Tech Savannah Robots placed 7th out of 15 university teams competing. Georgia Tech was the only school represented by two independent teams, and the first to have two teams place in the top half.

The RoboBoat Competition is a student robotics challenge in which teams design and race autonomous surface vehicles through an aquatic obstacle course. The Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems Foundation and the Office of Naval Research jointly sponsored the event.

During this year's competition, 150 students from across the U.S., Taiwan and Indonesia competed for the title of "Best RoboBoat" and $20,000 in prize money.  The robotic boats were asked to perform a series of progressively difficult tasks that simulate the types of activities that are expected of robotic craft built for the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard.

The Georgia Tech Aerospace System Design Laboratory’s Marine Robotics Group took home third place and $3,000. The team is made up of Aerospace Engineering graduate students Alan Smith, Sean Culpepper, David Moroniti, Eric Van Gehuchten and Pierre Valdez; Electrical and Computer Engineering graduate student Edward Macdonald; Computer science undergraduates Patrick Dillon and Alex Okonishnikov; Mechanical engineering undergraduates Chris Taylor and Jeff Carpenter. The team’s advisor is Professor Dimitri Mavris from the School of Aerospace Engineering.

Advised by Fumin Zhang, assistant professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, the Savannah team is made up of Electrical and Computer Engineering graduate students Steven Bradshaw, Dongsik Chang, Shayok Mukhopadhyay and Klimka Szwaykowska; Computer engineering undergraduate Will Crick; Electrical engineering undergraduates Valerie Bazie, Lisa Hicks, Sean Maxon and Casey T. Smith.