Shepherd University students took 3rd place in the Trinity College International Fire Fighting Home Robot Contest and RoboWaiter Competition in Hartford, Conn. April 9 and 10 and were the only U.S. team to place in the senior division of the fire fighting category.

Students placing 3rd included Matt Alt, junior computer engineering major from Baker; Michael Skaggs, sophomore computer engineering major from Arnoldsburg; and Matt Tark, sophomore computer engineering major from Hagerstown, Md.

Shepherd students represented four of the 40 teams that participated in the competition from schools including Penn State, Johns Hopkins University and Polytechnic Institute of New York University.

Alt; April Tressler, sophomore mathematics major from Thurmont, Md.; and Matt Griffith, junior computer engineering major from Boonsboro, Md., took 3rd place in the written exam category, the Olympiad Exam, which is a 50-minute exam that includes math, science, engineering and programming in the senior division. This is the third time Shepherd’s Robotics Team has competed in an international competition.

Seung-yun Kim, assistant professor of computer information sciences said that the competition provides students with a good experience to look at other teams and how they design and build robots.