Made It

Senior mechanical engineering students:

Bailey Norman, Colorado Springs, Colo.

Trey Jennings, Casper, Wyo.

Garrett Burrows, Casper, Wyo.

Nic Robinson, Casper, Wyo. 

“Automated swarms have many practical applications within our modern world society. They have especially proven crucial in performing specialized tasks in lethal and dangerous environments where humans otherwise can’t. Uses for swarms can range from military to humanitarian applications or even in the everyday work industry.

“Although their use has proven valuable in many areas of life, traditional swarms are susceptible to many problems. They tend to consume high amounts of power, are susceptible to cyberattacks due to their central processing units having internet/Bluetooth connections, are expensive to manufacture and are usually inflexible (to a degree). To combat these limitations, Cybersecurity Education and Research Center Director Mike Borowczak tasked us with developing a novel solution to the issue’s traditional swarms present.

“The principal novelty in this project is creating a multitude of agents that have no central processing unit, modular capabilities and mimic insect behavior. With our four years of coursework, we can apply our knowledge to a functioning project. Working with this project, we have learned how to create simple agents that can complete complex agents. From this realization we can see that sometimes the simpler something is the better it can run.

“All of us are looking for careers that vary from medical fields to aerospace fields.”