Last term, I participated in ME72, Caltech’s engineering design competition class. Going into it, I knew ME72 would be intense—it’s infamous for a reason. But nothing could have prepared me for the competition or for the challenge of building three fully functioning robots from scratch.
This year’s ME72 challenge was a competitive 3v3 hockey-style game, where teams designed and built three driver-controlled robots to shoot hockey pucks into other team’s goals while defending their own goal. Robots had to work together strategically and meet strict weight and size constraints.
Our team focused on creating a robust drivetrain and a shooter mechanism for this a puck-based arena challenge. From day one, we dove into design, prototyping, machining, electronics, and put down hours of hands-on shop work. Here is an early incomplete prototype of one of our robots.
The process wasn’t linear. Some days, we made huge improvements, while other days, it felt like we were making no progress. I learned that everything takes longer than you expect—especially when you’re machining, assembling electronics, etc. There were late nights when nothing worked and early mornings when something finally worked.
One major accomplishment was developing our shooter from an inconsistent MDF prototype into a working double-flywheel system with aluminum gussets, polyurethane flywheels, and a heat-formed ramp. We tested MANY iterations. It was a crash course in real-time engineering problem-solving. When something broke, we’d pivot, adjust, and rebuild. That process taught us to be resilient and flexible. Here is the final version of my team’s shooting robot.
Mock competition day showed us where we still had work to do but also how far we had come. It wasn’t perfect, but it worked. The bots weren’t flawless, but they moved and defended. We made changes after the mock competition to adjust. It felt like an iterative engineering cycle in motion.
By the final competition, all three robots were mobile, functional, equipped with defensive netting, and had optimized weight distribution. Each bot had its strengths, and each of us had a role to play in keeping them running.
ME72 taught me more than just how to build a robot. It taught me how to work under pressure, communicate clearly, and iterate fast. I developed confidence in the machine shop and in team discussions. It was the most challenging, hands-on, and rewarding class I’ve taken at Caltech so far.
If you want to read more about the competition itself make sure to read Caltech’s article here!
