By Abdul Djabbour // Contributing Writer
When Nicolas Benavides started his academic career, he felt he lacked knowledge in his field after only dedicating himself to homework. Now, Benavides is the creator of Panther Robotics, a club that promotes the creation of futuristic robots.
This is the first club that is in charge of FIU robot innovation and represents the university in different competitions.
“FIU did not have a robot club and the other universities did and it is very important to know how to teach the members how to build a robot and compete with other universities to have more knowledge about robots and the future,” said President Nicolas Benavides.
Benavides is majoring in Mechanical Engineering and is very happy with this organization because he is doing everything possible for people to learn more about the future of technology.
Panther Robotics started on Feb. 1, 2021. Led by undergraduate students of all majors, the only requirement to join is to be passionate about robots and wanting to learn more about the future of technology.
“Something I like about this club is seeing how every day we all grow and help each other and share ideas,” states member Marvin Castellón.
The club emphasizes principles such as taking care of the environment and humanity, by organizing beach clean ups, food drives, and collaborating with other clubs and organizations.
“People should enjoy this club if they are interested in helping the community, helping the environment or if you want to learn more about robots,” said Castellón.
Panther robotics stands for projects and competitions for engineering against other universities in computer science and tech disciplines.
This club also has great projects in the works such as creating an aquatic robot to help clean the environment. Panther robotics is also working with lunar robotics, a competition where robots are sent to the moon to explore.
Panther Robotics has its Vexu competition coming up where groups of understudies are entrusted with planning and building a robot in a game-based building challenge.
“We are currently working on Vexu robotics, and we are proud and happy to start competing with other universities and representing FIU,” said Benavides.
Panther Robotics is holding meetings on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. to prepare for this great competition and represent FIU and all of its students. For more information on how to join, be sure to visit their Instagram.