Students in North Carolina A&T State University School of Technology and College of Engineering placed 5th at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) SoutheastCon Robotics Competition. The robotics competition was held in Jacksonville, Fla. The annual conference promotes the applications and theories of all engineering disciplines.

Students participants included Ayanna Kennedy, Billye Whitehead, Christian Ford, Jamaal Davis, Jaquana McNeill, Justin Turner, Tiffanie Smith, Evan Olney, Furman Thompson, Gregory Simpson, Kevin Perkins, Mecca Arnette, Nicholas Donald, Senam Dagnon, Henry Williams, Joseph Rogers, Pravin Chopade, Hamzeh Qabaja, Zhijian Xie. The faculty advisor is Dr. Ibraheem Kateeb.

The objective of the competition was to simulate the sorting of containers and packages at a port by having a robot pick up and sort for shipping either by rail, sea or air based on different colored and sized boxes. There were several other requirements along with a detailed course layout for all robots to follow. The robot could only carry two boxes at a time therefore a camera was used to distinguish the types of boxes and navigate the course.

A&T students designed a robot that met all specifications and successfully completed the course and objective. The team placed 7th among 54 other universities in the first three rounds. They were also one of the eight teams that qualified to compete for first, second and third. They placed 5th with Mississippi State University for final ranking.