About

What we do:

The NIU Robotics club is a student organization in NIU's College of Engineering and Engineering Technology. Here, students get the opportunity to explore their interests in robotics and learn what goes into designing and building useful robots. Each year, the club participates in the Midwestern Robotics Design Competition (MRDC), previously named the Jerry Sanders Creative Design Competition (JSDC), and the MATE International ROV Competition. In addition to mentoring local FTC and FRC teams, we also support local STEM activities including STEMfest, regular presentations to NIU CEET visitors, engineering classes, and STEM Summer Camps.

Achievements:

MRDC 2019: The club won 1st place with NIRV.

MRDC 2018: The club won 1st place with QUIN.

MRDC 2017: The club received a certificate for coming in 1st place in the demolition round of competition.

MATE 2017: The club qualified for Internationals, held at Long Beach City College in California.

MATE 2016: The club qualified for Internationals, held at NASA's Nuetral Buoyancy Lab in Houston, Texas.

JSDC 2014: The club entered the first ever autonomous robot into the competition. This first AI bot, NAI (standing for NIU Artificial Intelligence), won the club's second (in two years) JSDC Most Innovative award.

During JSDC 2013: The club entered the first ever flying robot into the competition. This first quadcopter, QUIN (standing for NIU Quadcopter in reverse), won the JSDC Most Innovative award.

Founded in August 2012 by Ryan Riddel