Eleven teams of robots armed with saws, catapults and other devices to wreck their opponents clashed in the Student Union on Monday in the final event for National Engineers Week.
An annually popular event, Bot Wars' sparks and smoke had crowds of students around the student-built arena to watch the metal-to-metal combat.
"Today is about kill or be killed," said Chris McClellan, a sophomore aerospace engineering major and event participant.
The competition ran as a double-elimination tournament with winning robots moving on and losing robots facing other losers.
Although each robot had to meet certain weight, price and material requirements, each engineering club's machine took a different shape with an array of weapons for total annihilation. One team chose to use a "spinner" that traveled over 1,000 mph. The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineering chose to put a mini saw blade in the front to cut up challengers. The physics club used a catapult designed to fling their opponent off the robot's top.
Each robot couldn't weight more than 30 pounds and teams were not allowed to spend more than $400 on materials.
After two hours of shrieks from the audience, and sparks and bolts flying all over the arena, the UB robotics club emerged victorious.
The Student Association sponsored all the week's events, which included an egg drop, consumable tower contest, "? the Dean," and the Engineering Ball.
Whether they came to cheer on a friend or just noticed the commotion and decided to take a closer look, many students said the conclusion to Engineers Week was a hit.
"Of all the events put on this semester and during Engineering Week, (this) was the best event," said SA Treasurer Jessica Dangler, a senior engineering major herself.
"There should be more events like this," said Andrew Kayes, a senior biomedical sciences major. "It brings unity to these organizations that normally is not there."
Photo: Courtesy of Matthew Messina, from the RMBERS' Instagram page
