It all started with an old Roomba and a few curious students in The University of Tulsa’s College of Engineering & Computer Science. A year later, members of the Robotics Association of TU Students found themselves in Boulder, Colorado, earning fourth place in the highly competitive Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ regional Robotics Competition.
Nadia Pavlov is a rising junior from Littleton, Massachusetts, double majoring in electrical engineering and French through UTulsa’s International Engineering & Language program. She is one of the founders of the Robotics Association of TU Students and led the team during the competition this spring.
“Participating in the competition was a wonderful experience,” she said. “Besides outdoing our expectations and placing fourth among 25 teams, we also got to meet so many other students from various schools within IEEE’s Region 5 who are just as passionate about robotics.”
Competing gave Pavlov practical experience that can’t be found in a classroom.
“I learned 3D-modeling, embedded systems and power distribution through this project,” she explained. “Before I began work on the robot, I had never opened a 3D-modeling software, but by the end, I became an expert at computer-aided design, having designed and printed the entire robot. Building the robot and preparing for the competition took a lot of hours and effort, but it was so fun it rarely felt like work.”
In preparation for this event, the team spent days in the lab, building, coding, testing and overcoming challenges.
“I especially loved the moment when I transferred all the motors and wiring from a breadboard onto the actual robot, and suddenly it went from being an inanimate model to a moving, functioning robot,” said Pavlov.
Hannah D’Cruz is a rising junior from Milwaukee majoring in computer science. As a programmer, she worked primarily on the software, learning to use the Robot Operating Systems, an open-source middleware framework used to build complex robot applications, and writing localization code.
D’Cruz says the IEEE competition was meaningful to her because of how well the team adjusted to the new environment, solved problems and improved throughout the day. Additionally, they were one of the only all-female teams at the competition.
“It was really rewarding after all the hard work we had put in,” she said “Because this was our team’s first year competing, at times we faced unexpected challenges, and it seemed like our lack of knowledge would keep us from being ready for the competition. But in the end, we were more successful than any of us expected.”
The team received generous sponsorship from Robert Strattan, who served as a professor of electrical engineering for more than 30 years. Strattan was awarded UTulsa’s Outstanding Teacher Award in 1993 and was inducted into the College of Engineering & Computer Science Hall of Fame in 2015-16. His gift made it possible for the team to travel to Colorado for the competition.
Students said the Robotics Association of TU Students gives them valuable hands-on technical skills, as well as interpersonal and leadership skills. On top of that, it was a great networking opportunity to meet like-minded students from other universities.
Maura Toney, a rising senior from St. Louis majoring in computer science and applied mathematics, is a programmer on the team, focusing on using light detection and ranging sensor input and integrating autonomous code with the Robot Operating System. She was surprised to find that students from competing universities were willing to share information and tips.
“Getting to see how every team approached the same challenge for the IEEE Region 5 Robotics Competition in a very different and unique manner was fascinating and a wonderful way to explore the many approaches to solving the same problem,” Toney said. “Teams came up with solutions we never would have even considered. Through talking with them about their design process and approach, I feel we’ve gained a lot of perspective that will help us approach problem solving in a greater variety of ways.”
The team looks forward to participating in other robotics competitions in 2026-27. All UTulsa students are welcome to join the Robotics Association of TU Students regardless of major.