Hardware competitions in engineering education

Hardware competitions such as robotics events are becoming a common occurrence in many engineering schools and technical conferences. In many instances they provide an opportunity for students to demonstrate and compare different design approaches, interact with other students with different backgrounds, and learn from each other. Design problems associated with competitions are often challenging open ended problems that support various solutions in terms of hardware and software choices, strategies, cost, and effectiveness. Competitions have a great motivational effect and generate interest from students and from the public at large. The article discusses the relevance of hardware competitions to engineering education