Who we are – Our team is mainly populated by UNSW students studying in the School of Computer Science & Engineering or studying Mechatronic Engineering but we also have a number of alumni and collaborators working alongside us.
Why join – Being a member of rUNSWift takes a large amount of time and effort but is hugely rewarding. You get the opportunity to work on a university project that competes internationally and it’s a great chance to practically apply your studies in a meaningful way. Not only that but you get to make some good friends along the way, with many teams remaining good friends long after their time at RoboCup.
What it takes – There is pressure to succeed, we want to win and be successful as we have been champions many times over the years, winning in 2014 and 2015 and placing at least 3rd most years. We are after passionate students who can dedicate consistent time to the project every week. The competition has a standard platform, so you will work with the NAO robots but all of the development is software. The easiest way you show us you know how to develop robotics software is by completing the robotics course COMP3431. Alternatively you can come along to the lab or complete some of the Getting Started steps and show us your work!
Who we recruit – Ideally we recruit students who have 1+ years left on their degree as it does take some time to get familiar with the code and make some meaningful contributions. If you’ve been with us for a year, there’s even the opportunity to do your thesis with us!
When we recruit – We usually recruit members from Term 3-Term 1 as the project gets more intensive in the lead up to the RoboCup international competition in the middle of the year.
How to Join
To join head over to our discord and send us a message in the first-steps channel telling us a bit about yourself!
Getting Started
Courses – If you’re just getting started at uni these are some courses we recommend to take as early as possible so you can build the foundations of being able to work with us.
Mechatronics: COMP1511/MTRN2500 (C++), COMP1531 (Python) and MTRN3500 (Threading). More advanced: MTRN4010 (Localisation), MTRN4230/COMP9517 (Vision) and COMP3431 (Architecture/ROS2)
You can also read our documentation which gives a good idea about the different aspects of our code and how it works. However it is quite comprehensive so by this point we recommend heading over our discord and sending a message so someone in our team can help get you started!