History of UH Micromouse

In the beginning.....

1995-1996

Two very foolhardy students decided to work on the micromouse. One of the students decided to work on the micromouse as his Eta Kappa Nu (HKN) pledge project, and brought in his partner as the third member. After many, many meetings and many, many cups of coffee, the group was able to make a maze solving algorithm, specifications for an efficient mouse, and a prototype mouse, the Hokule'a. The prototype proved that they were on the right track of making a mouse.

Behold, the Hokule`a.....

Hokule`a

1996-1997

With the knowledge they gained from building the prototype, they were able to build a fully operational mouse. The mouse competed at the Region 6 Central Area Spring Meeting Micromouse Contest, held on Saturday, May 3, 1997 at the University of the Pacif ic at Stockton, California. Eight mice, representing four universities, entered the contest that year. Competing for the first time, the team from the Unversity of Hawaii captured 1st place trophy. The name of the winning mouse was `Iole`Auana, which t ranslates to "Wandering Mouse." It finished the maze in 1 minute and 2 seconds.

`Iole`Auana and Hokule`a

Construction The micromouse project is heavily interdisciplinary. Nathan Mariels (left) is working on interfacing with the stepper motors, and Kent Kanja (right) is desoldering a circuit board.

1997-1998

Because the success of `Iole`Auana, the next year the micromouse program expanded a great deal. At one time, there were 15 people working on the micromouse project. However, the new teams were quite young, consisting of mostly freshmen and sophomore. F rom the winning team the previous year, 3 of the 4 members returned to construct another mouse......a better mouse. In the end, although UH almost had two mice competing mice, only one competed in the actual competition, held on the campus of the Univers ity of California, Davis. UH again captured first with a time of approx. 45 seconds.

The Second Mouse The 1998 mouse was a significant improvement from `Iole`Auana. It was lighter, faster, and dispated much less heat. Also, instead of a wire wrap CPU board, all the digital hardware was done on a printed circuit board, making the overall design a little more compact. Not only were there physical improvements (mechanical and hardware), but also software improvements. This second generation mouse implemented an upgraded solving algorithm, making it a great deal "smarter" than `Iole`Auana. It seems like program leaped further into success this year. Yet, practically all of the members of the winning team were graduating. What did that mean for the micromouse program at the UH?

1998-1999

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1999-2000

This year, the Micromouse team, led by Wen Phan, again captured first place at the Region 6 competition, held at University of Nevada at Reno. The winning team, composed of Nathan Mariels, Wen Phan, Jeff Chan, and Crystal Yee returned with the chassis of last year's mouse, armed with a new sensor board and solving algorithm.

Also competing was a team made up of David Yee, Jodi Enomoto, Leo Chan, and Nolan Bilgera. Their mouse, called Micromoth, captured fourth place, and was the only crash-free micromouse that Tep has ever seen in all the years that UH has participated in this contest. It set an unofficial Region 6 record for most squares of the maze traversed, and was not touched once during the 10 minutes of its run time.

2000-2001

Three micromouse teams went to Cal State Sacramento. The team consisting of Justin Loy, Mike Tamamoto, Elliot Taniguchi, and Aaron Ohta built Junior Boy and placed fourth, Micromoth placed seventh, and Ratmobile placed eighth.

2001-2002

Six teams participated in micromouse this year, and five traveled to the Region 6 competition at Cal State Chico. Deathstar, the mouse built by Jason Akagi, Jeffrey Ikeda, and Gordon Li placed second, while JANE the mouse built by Justin Loy, Aaron Ohta, Michael Tamamoto, and Byron Wolfe placed fourth. The other mice placed in sixth (Scorpion), ninth (CRASH), and sixteenth place (Hit Em Up).

KGMB also did a special on team Deathstar during the summer. Jeffrey and Tep were interviewed by Jade Moon at the TV studio.

2002-2003

This year we have seven teams doing micromouse. The Region 6 competition was held at the University of the Pacific.

2003-2004

Nine teams are doing micromouse projects this year. San Francisco State University hosted the regional competition this year.

2004-2005

An unprecedented 14 micromouse teams are participating this year. The regional micromouse competition was held at Santa Clara University.

2005-2006

There are 11 teams building micromice this year. Six teams went up to the competition at Fresno State. Tepidius, the micromouse built by Kyle Tanabe, Dian Nguyen and Paul Ramirez came in a close second place, losing to a team from UC Davis by only 1.71 seconds. Take Off Your Jacket, the micrmouse built by Scott Bonilla, Kendall Kogasaka, Kellie Murakami, and Jayson Nakakura. Red 10, another micromouse built by the Tepidius team placed fourth. The other teams placed ninth (Meat and Potatoes), tenth (Fast DADI), eleventh (Not So Ubermaus), and thirteenth (MicroRat v.2).

2006-2007

We have 11 micromouse teams this year. Good luck everyone!

2007-2008

The 2008 IEEE Region 6 Competition was held on Saturday, May 3, 2008 at San Jose State University. Four teams went to the competition.

Team 4’s mouse Chebychev took second place in the Maze competition. Members are: Joseph Longhi, Malcolm Menor, Shane Sunada, Nathan Umeda.

In addition, Team Mighty Mouse took first place in the Packaging Completion. Members are: Mark Fujihara, Bryant Komo, and David Ota.

For more results see: http://www-ee.eng.hawaii.edu/~tep/Projects/S08/regional.html

2009

Four teams went to competition at UC Santra Cruz. 3 of those teams filled in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place standings.

1. Alfalfa (Alex Zamora & Tyson Seto-Mook) - 1:11.29
2. Baroque - BaroqueN (Blaise Arita, Shaunty Kleinschmidt, Matthew Menor, Maran Osakoda)
- 3:47.76
3. Team 4 - Chebyshev II (Joseph Longhi, Malcolm Menor, Shane Sunada) - 7:03.484.

UH was also captured 1st in both the packaging and paper contest.

Micromouse packaging:
1. Raja (Alex Zamora & Tyson Seto-Mook)

Paper Competition:
1. Team 4 (Joseph Longhi, Malcolm Menor, Shane Sunada)