This weekend was the first annual Con du lac Sci-Fi convention in Lake Charles, La.
Con du lac (translated - Convention at the water), is Southwest Louisiana's first Scifi convention. While our main focus is Scifi we will have something for everyone like a Renaissance fair, science programming, and many many extras.
Our tracks of programming will include: Scifi Track (Star Trek, Star Wars, BSG, XENA, and more), Authors and Fantasy Track (Different genre authors and fantasy pieces such as Lord of the Rings); and a Science Fact Track.
Team CajunBot was there to inform and energize, as well as have a little fun with everyone else. Check out some of the pictures from the event below, or visit the Con du lac website for more information.
Leaders of Team CajunBot and university officials lauded team members and sponsors during an awards ceremony at the Advanced Computer Technology and Research building on campus today.
The team most recently was one of 10 featured in the Discovery Science channel’s five-part series “Robocars.”
In 2004, 2005 and 2007, team members built two autonomous vehicles which competed in the Department of Defense’s challenges which pitted driverless vehicles against one another in on a desert course and city streets. The first two challenges featured CajunBot – a six-wheeled all-terrain vehicle. In 2007, team members showcased CajunBot II - a Jeep Wrangler Rubicon.
Awards were given out in three categories including:
Red Brass Team Members: Trouble Arnold, Adrian Aucoin Jr., Firas Bouz, Rochelle Brasseaux, Joshua Bridevaux, Charles Cavanaugh, Muralidar Chakravarthi, Ronald Cheek, Russ Danna, Adam Dupre, Daro Eghagha, Suresh Golconda, Dallas Griffith, Joshua Hargrave, John Herpin, Arun Pratap Indugula, Nitin Jyoti, Arun Lakhotia, Patrick Landry, Chris Ledet, Adam Lewis, Anthony Maida, Danny Majors, Mark McKelvy, Chris Meaux, Pablo Mejia, Christopher Mire, Santhosh Padmanabhan, Prashant Pathak, Amit Puntambekar, Jonathan Raush, Ryan Rucker, Gunasekaran Seetharaman, Mike Speers, Chandan Uddaraju, Christopher Vaughn, Vidhya Venkitakrishnan and Scott Wilson.
Red Brass Sponsors: U.S. National Wetlands Research Center, Hewlett-Packard, Lockheed Martin Corporation, Begnaud Manufacturing Inc., Broadpoint Inc., Pixus Digital Printing, Cain’s Auto Service, Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development, Honda of Lafayette, Cajun Off-Road, Espion International, SICK Inc., Ibeo Automobile Sensor GmbH, Iteris Inc., 2 the Max ATVs, Loretta Tauzin, Lark Chartier and Joey Pons.
Glass Awards: Lafayette Motors, Firefly Digital Inc., C&C Technologies, Brother Ray Majors, Quality Transport Inc., MedExpress Companies, Oxford Technical Solutions Ltd., Charles D. Cavanaugh and Arun Lakhotia.
Special MVP awards were given to Joshua Bridevaux, Pablo Mejia and Suresh Golconda. The “Hidden Hand” award was given to former UL Lafayette President Ray Authement.
“This team has done such outstanding work to have UL Lafayette counted amongst the elite engineering schools,” stated Arun Lakhotia, CajunBot's team leader. “They have worked incredibly hard, going 36 hours and even 50 hours without sleep. For the four years we have been going back to challenges, I didn’t have the time to look up and recognize their hard work. Now, it’s time to do that.”
Last Updated on Tuesday, 12 August 2008 20:57
Discovery Science Channel "Robocars" Promo
Written by Administrator
Monday, 14 July 2008 22:13
Last Updated on Monday, 26 January 2009 17:15
Robocars premiers tonight on Discovery's Science Channel
Written by Administrator
Monday, 14 July 2008 21:05
The series "Robocars" will be premiering tonight at 9pm (Central time) on the Discovery Science Channel. The show follows ten teams of top engineers from around the U.S. compete for a $2 million grand prize, struggling to build the first vehicle to drive itself through an urban environment and features Team CajunBot. Here is the schedule and episode descriptions:
July 14th 9-10pm - Episode 1 - follows Stanford Racing, Tartan Racing, Team Jefferson, Team Gray and The Golem Group as they prepare for the Urban Challenge and pass through the DARPA site visits.
July 21st 9-10pm - Episode 2 - follows Highlander Racing, Team Oshkosh, Team Cajunbot, Team MIT, and Team Case as they prepare for the Urban Challenge and pass through the DARPA site visits. The show ends with DARPA announcing the teams who made it to the semi-finals.
July 28th 9-10pm - Episode 3 - covers the semi-finals. Stanford Racing, Tartan Racing, Team Jefferson, Team Gray, The Golem Group, Team Oshkosh, Team Cajunbot, Team MIT and Team Case are all included. The show ends with DARPA announcing the teams who made it to the finals.
August 4th 9-10pm - Epiosde 4 - covers the finals. Stanford Racing, Tartan Racing, Team MIT, and Team Oshkosh are all included.
August 11th 8-10pm - Episodes 5 and 6 - The first hour is a summary of the last four episodes and the second hour focuses on futuristic car technology and contains excerpt from the DARPA Urban Challenge.
UL's autonomous vehicle, CajunBot II, and the team that created the technology that drives the robotic jeep will be featured in the Discovery Science channel series, Robocars, which premieres at 9 p.m. tonight.
The five-part series, Robocars highlights 10 teams which competed in the Department of Defense’s 2007 Urban Challenge in California last October.
The team will be introduced as part of the series tonight, but will be featured prominently in the July 21 episode, which also airs at 9 p.m.
The series continues on July 28 and Aug. 4. The series finale will air Aug. 12.
The race may be over, but UL's Team CajunBot is still in the spotlight.
UL Team CajunBot will be featured in a Discovery Science Channel's series, Robocars, starting Monday and concluding on Aug. 12.
The five-part series highlights 10 teams which competed in the Department of Defense's 2007 Urban Challenge in California last October.
Last year, Marabella Productions of New York was here to follow the UL team on its journey to compete for the third time in the race.
Team CajunBot will be introduced in the Monday episode but will be featured prominently in the second episode set to air at 9 p.m. July 21. Episode 2 is expected to replay at midnight, 4 a.m., 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. on July 22.
The team can also be seen in Episode 3 set to air at 9 p.m. July 28.
The series also follows teams from Stanford University in California, Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania, Perrone Robotics in Virginia, Gray Matter Inc. in Metairie, Golem Group in California, Oshkosh in Wisconsin, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Case Western Reserve University in Ohio.
Subsequent episodes on July 28, Aug. 4 and 12 will follow teams as they qualify for the semi-finals and ultimately the final race in Victorville, California.
Team CajunBot made it to the semi-final rounds of the autonomous vehicle race but failed to qualify for the final race. Carnegie Mellon's Tartan Racing were the winners of the 2007 Urban Challenge.
The UL team's vehicle has evolved in the past three years. Initially, the team outfitted a six-wheeled, all-terrain vehicle for the first and second challenges. CajunBot II, a Jeep Wrangler Rubicon, competed in the 2007 Urban Challenge.
