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. The team most recently was one of 10 featured in the Discovery Science channel’s five-part series “Robocars.”
Team CajunBot
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.
“ When we look back 50 years from now, these challenges will most likely be remembered as events that changed automotive history,” said Dr. Arun Lakhotia, team leader for Team CajunBot. “I want the team members to have something that they can show to their grandchildren or great grandchildren to tell them ‘I was there. I played a role in that history.’”
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.
Joshua Bridevaux
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.
Pablo MeijaGlass 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,” said Lakhotia. “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.”
Suresh Golconda Lakhotia said the future of Grand Challenges will depend on the DoD, but the team isn’t waiting.
“ We’ve found several niches to apply the technology we’ve developed,” he said. “We are looking at applications of autonomous vehicles in homeland security, applications of the rich sensors on the robot for surveying and most importantly, the application of our unique virtualization capability in creating 3-D models of neighborhoods an cities.”