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“At the end of the day, that’s how engineering is evaluated,” Mansoormoayad said. The ASU attendees found it particularly valuable to learn what the police department viewed as the strengths and weaknesses of different robotic systems. Students and faculty who attended the donation event received a tour of the bomb squad facility and learned how incorporating robots supports public safety. “I thought it was a great idea that will give students a chance to learn about and use real robots from industry,” said Mason Smith, a systems engineering graduate student who attended the donation event.įor example, Borna Mansoormoayad, an engineering undergraduate student with a concentration in robotics, plans to study certain parts of the robot that didn’t meet failsafe design criteria and had previously failed during use.

Though the robots may not be performing the same bomb defusing duties at ASU, they will likely find a new role as a hands-on learning resource for students in robotics classrooms and be used during extracurricular club activities. “They will help students understand the operation of robots in hazardous environments, the concepts of human-robot teaming and the positive impacts that automation brings to society.” “This gives students valuable access to real-world robots that are not usually available in classes or even research labs,” Zhang said. Wenlong Zhang, an associate professor of engineering at The Polytechnic School, one of the seven Fulton Schools, says having these robots is a unique opportunity for students. “There can no better use for old technology than helping students develop the next generation of robots.”

“I enjoyed seeing the students excited at the possibilities the old robots presented,” Infanger said. After a long process, the handoff was arranged.

From that chance encounter, he reached out to McCarville to find ways to get involved in future events.ĭuring his involvement, Infanger mentioned a pair of bomb squad robots that were not being used by the department and wondered if they could be repurposed to help ASU robotics students. Anthony Infanger, who happened to work with the Homeland Defense Bureau of the Phoenix Police Department to manage emergencies. The person that student spoke to was Sgt. “The student proudly told the whole story about our hackathon and what kind of project he had.” “After the event, a student was wearing his Drone Defense T-shirt while in a store checkout line and someone asked what that was all about,” McCarville said. In the first hackathon design challenge, called Drone Defense, students developed countermeasures to prevent or minimize drone threats. In 2020, Daniel McCarville, an industrial engineering professor of practice in the Fulton Schools, coordinated homeland security hackathons as part of his then-role as the education director for the Center for Accelerating Operational Efficiency, a Center of Excellence established by the Department of Homeland Security.

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Photo courtesy of Stacie Hainke/Phoenix Police Department Download Full ImageĪ T-shirt sparked the opportunity. Fulton Schools of Engineering to help robotics students gain hands-on experience with design and real-world use. A Phoenix Police Department retired bomb squad robot (pictured) is one of two devices donated to the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University met at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport over the holiday season to discuss the robots’ use and send them off to their new home.

Representatives from the Phoenix Police Department and the Ira A. Now retired from service investigating suspicious packages and other dangerous tasks, two bomb squad robots are starting a new phase of life at Arizona State University.