Humber Polytechnic students participated for the first time ever at the RoboBoat 2025 competition and returned home with an award.
Humber was one of 27 teams at the international competition that had students designing autonomous, robotic boats to navigate through a course. These boats are also designed to tackle tasks that mimic real-world challenges facing the marine industry including coastal surveillance, environmental monitoring and other types of oceanographic operations.
Ian Cameron, a graduate of the Bachelor of Industrial Design program who just finished his third year of the Bachelor of Engineering - Mechatronics program, was one of three Humber Mechatronics Club team members who travelled to Florida for the competition.
Cameron said the team was looking for a challenging competition and were intrigued when they came across RoboBoat. They liked the real-world aspect of the challenge and wanted to see how they stacked up against the other teams, including from prestigious post-secondary institutions such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Cornell University.
Despite not being able to deliver a boat to the competition, the team completed all the other requirements for the competition such as drafting a technical report, creating a website and introduction video and providing a design presentation.
"We completed everything but putting a boat in the water," said Cameron. "It helped immensely being there for the first time. Going to the venue and seeing what's required of teams was invaluable. I'd add that the community was fantastic as well."
The team left with the Rising Innovators award.
"We had a good plan and an interesting design, so they decided to reward our efforts, which was great," said Cameron.
Shaun Ghafari, dean, Engineering with the Faculty of Applied Sciences & Technology, is encouraging the team to continue to develop the boat as their final year capstone project. The hope, said Cameron, is that they will leave a solid foundation and a boat so next year's team can pick up where they left off.
The Mechatronics Club is also looking for new members and anyone interested can email mechatronicsclub@humber.ca. Cameron noted that they need team members from different programs, not just engineering and mechatronics. As the competition requires a multi-disciplinary approach, the team is looking for media, business and technologist students who are looking for an opportunity to practice and apply their skills and knowledge.
