Gridiron Gadgets

The robotic football club at Notre Dame teaches engineering principles at a systems level, a crucial skill set for today's engineering careers.

The concept came to the father of a late ND engineering student in the form of a drawing of a robot playing football--a quarterback, to be exact. The idea eventually grew into an intercollegiate competition.

“Lots of competitions in robotics are exclusively technical,” said creator Bill Hederman. “I think our key insight was, what if we could come up with a competition that is exciting, technically challenging, and might even involve the rest of the University community?”