Label caught up with two members, Ed Hodges (Chair) and Miles Bennett (Media), of one of Loughboroughâs new societies at the Bazaar yesterday to see how theyâre finding Society life.
Why did you found Fighting Robot Society, what do you do which is different?
Ed: We figured it was an interest to a lot of people which they wouldnât normally get to fulfill; Loughborough University has the perfect tools to accomplish that.
How often do you meet up?
Ed: We normally meet up once a week, on Wednesday afternoons in the STEMLab.
Miles: But you can use the STEMLab at any time, as long as there isnât any teaching going on in there.
How have you found being a new society?
Ed: Itâs been very challenging, especially getting used to the Union Constitution; everything that you have to adhere to has been⌠interesting. But itâs definitely helped us with our organisational skills.
Miles: Yeah, itâs taught us skills that we probably wouldnât have gained doing other things.
What has been your biggest challenge this year?
Ed: Getting engagement. As weâre a new society, getting our name out there is really hard, but weâre working on it through our social media presence. We hope to gain more clout to contact companies for support and sponsorship for events.
(To Miles) As Media Rep for the society, how have you personally found that?
Miles: Itâs been a little bit challenging at times getting used to advertising our society and all that, but weâre trying to grow our Instagram by posting regularly. Getting the content for that can be difficult at times, but, were growing!
Do you have any events coming up? Or do you go to others’ events?
Ed: Yes. We have a couple of bots entered for a competition on the 24th of February, which we need to prove they can move for by the 10thof February, so thatâs currently our main challenge. Weâre also organising an event for April; weâre looking to hold events every two months or so during term time.
Miles: We want to branch out and get involved with the general fighting robot community as well, including host events alongside them.
Ed: And reach out to educational institutions to get people interested in robotics and engineering from a younger age.
What are your big plans for the rest of this year?
Ed: Currently, as I say, the events. Weâre also trying to get together our own arena so that we can host events on our terms. Weâve also put plans in place for a 2020 event, to host heavyweight robots at Loughborough to grow the universityâs presence in the national and international scene of combat robotics.
Do you think the University and Union will support you with that?
Ed: Yes, we have already been in talks with them about it.
Why should people get involved?
Ed: Cause itâs cool, who doesnât want to build robots? Itâs for anybody who saw the show and took an interest. Itâs not something youâd normally get a chance to do yourself and can be a very expensive hobby to get into from a certain point: you have to buy a certain number of tools, but we have all of these tools provided to us by the university, which weâre very grateful for.
Miles: It brings together likeminded people who have the same hobby, you can make friends, and learn another skillset that you havenât had a chance to put into practise before.
Any final thoughts?
Shout out to Nupur and Guilia who are great and super helpful.
Featured image by: Amie Woodyatt
Image used in header by: Miles Bennett
