Deer Park students win prize for farming robot

published Apr. 18, 2011

A team of four Deer Park High School South students won first prize this month at a state robotics competition for creating an un-manned, solar-powered farming tractor.

SPARTAN (Solar Powered Autonomous Robot Tractor with Artificial Navigation) earned a score of 98 out of 100 at the Texas Computer Education Association's robotics competition on April 9 in San Angelo. The students—Cameron Manley, Ryan Steward, Holden Berryhill and Matthew Walmsley—designed the tractor so that a farmer can load it with seeds and water, then send it out into the field to perform all manner of farming tasks without human supervision.

"The students wanted to solve a real-world problem and began brainstorming to list the problems that they felt were significant," says Julie Redden, who teaches computer science at Deer Park High School South. "Two of the problems, world hunger and saving the environment, were at the top of the list. SPARTAN was created to increase food supply while eliminating our use of fossil fuels during the farming of our food."

Redden says the team has been working on SPARTAN since January. During the competition, they gave a six-minute demonstration of the tractor in action, and displayed a log book detailing its creation, in addition to marketing materials they created fro SPARTAN.

Redden says that the competition judges praised the four students' professionalism and commented that their "passion for the product was obvious."

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