A competition full of hacks
This year’s 2.007 robotics competition paid homage to MIT’s illustrious hacking tradition, and challenged students to build robots that could replicate some of the greatest hacks in Institute history. During two gear-crunching nights this week, more than 100 robots battled each other on scaled-down models of the MIT campus, racing to complete any and all of a given set of infamous MIT pranks: moving the Caltech cannon, inflating a balloon on the Harvard football field and placing a police car on the Great Dome.“Imagine the energy that goes into these hacks, and that goes into these robots,” said Daniel Frey, an associate professor of mechanical engineering and engineering systems and the lead instructor for 2.007. “Today we’re having a little fun … celebrating the great hacks of all time.” Each spring semester, 2.007 — officially known as Design and Manufacturing I, a required course for mechanical engineering students — culminates...