Driven by curiosity. Driving changeSeconds of chaos - the story of Robot Club
One wheel had stopped turning several rounds earlier. A panel was now hanging off at an awkward angle. Movement had become more hopeful than controlled, the beast on its last legs…across the arena, its opponent looked only marginally healthier.
But determined.
Around them, spectators crammed shoulder-to-shoulder and inched forward, sensing the end was near, and shouting desperate ideas to an increasingly panicked team as they looked left and right for help that would not come.
The opponent moved forward.
Glass exploded. The crowd erupted. This was the Robot Club final.
What started as a small pilot project in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology (CEB) in 2023 has since grown into one of the Department’s most popular annual activities and, in 2026, began to expand beyond CEB following support from the University’s Enhancing Research Culture Fund.
Anna Rudd, Technical Operations Manager, and Josh Easy, Makerspace Manager, developed the competition as a way of bringing students, researchers and professional services staff, including technicians, together through a practical and fun engineering challenge.
Teams are tasked with designing, building and testing robots over an academic year, before taking them into the arena for a final tournament.
The first full competition took place in 2024 and quickly attracted participants from across the Department. Some arrived with years of engineering experience. Others had never designed, built or programmed anything before.
The format was deliberately created to support both.
Beginner teams tend to start with template robot designs and receive support through workshops as well as the CEB Makerspace. The more experienced builders tend to develop their own machines, but are also expected to help newer participants learn along the way. Collaboration is intended as a key focus of the building time, with the competitive spirit only welcomed during the end-of-year competition.
The success of the initiative led to Robot Club receiving £10,000 from the University’s Enhancing Research Culture Fund in 2025.
The funding helped to develop reusable robotics kits, a portable arena and supporting further resources to enable other departments and Colleges to establish their own competitions.
The long-term ambition is to create a network of Robot Clubs across Cambridge, with opportunities for future competitions between departments and Colleges.
