Practical Development Methodology – Smart Play Cubes

On February 13, the time had come again: in the late afternoon, four groups of students gathered in the lecture hall to take part in the final competition of the course “Practical Development Methodology I”.

Under the watchful eyes of a jury consisting of professors and staff from the ALSVV, IES, IMNS and MUST departments, and of course the EMKlub, the teams had to demonstrate the results of their development work.

The task was to construct a game cube which – controlled by a Bluetooth signal – can assume a selected position. Mechanics, electronics and software have to work together perfectly, so it was no wonder that the task was particularly difficult this year. Only one group managed to achieve all the numbers set by the audience.

It remained absolutely exciting: another group achieved two out of three possible points. And this despite fears of major technical problems beforehand.

However, the evaluation of the results was also based on the methodical approach of the individual groups. This was assessed by the jury on the basis of short presentations. The teams were also able to impress there. The solutions chosen differed greatly: in some cases, flywheels were built into the cubes, and in others, magnetic linear accelerators were used to generate the impulse that caused the cube to tip.

At the end of the evening, organized by the student representatives, the evening was rounded off with pizza and cold drinks. This once again offered the opportunity for an exchange between the teams, the representatives of the departments, the EMKlub, interested students and the student representatives.