2024-2025
MINESHAFT
In 2024-2025, The Appalachian Mountains, once a powerhouse of “black diamond” coal, shaped the economic and cultural heartbeat of the Southeast, but also left behind a legacy of environmental and social challenges. The MINESHAFT Challenge reimagines this history as a launchpad for innovation, blending robotics, drones, and sustainable technologies like biomining to explore safer, more eco-friendly mining practices. By merging STEM education with real-world problem-solving, STREAMWORKS empowers participants to tackle complex industrial issues, develop cutting-edge skills, and pioneer solutions for a more sustainable future.
2023-24 RDL Team Showcase
2023-2024
SCARECROW
In 2023-2024, teams have partnered with BioBuilder, and work to obtain crop samples to fight against an infestation of fungi and insects that have ravaged agricultural crops across the globe. With a growing population, pesticides have become an unacceptable solution to fending off this infestation. BioBuilder has asked teams to utilize their promoters and mobile accelerator to research and develop crop samples that are resistant to disease, fungi, and insects. Drones will be tasked with restoring power lines, mapping the land, taking water samples, and much more. Robots will have many tasks, including crop harvest, solar panel placement, waterline repair, and several other tasks.
2022 - 2023
Bermuda Triangle
In the 2022-2023 RDL Bermuda Triangle mission, teams, partnered with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI), were assigned with the retrieval of the crucial sample obtained in the previous mission from the bottom of the ocean floor after an incident occurred at the end of the Dragonfly mission. WHOI asked teams to maintain connection with Underwater Acoustic Transponders (UAT) and to collect manganese while also retrieving the sample boxes.
2021 - 2022 DragonFly
In the 2021-2022 DragonFly challenge, teams collected HydroPods, NitroPods, and CarbonPods to create molecular assemblies of molecules found on Mars’s surface. Teams explored the surface, surveying for images placed around the field to identify the contents of the main image. Robots needed to place seismometers inside the mountain and measure seismic activity. Drones delivered Automated Underwater Vehicles (AUV) to the great methane lake, Lake Photon. At the same time, these machines flew over beacons, powered by ultrasonic sensors, to illuminate the alliance’s color. Finally, drones needed to deliver satellites to the appropriately-colored landing pads on top of the mountains.