Robots designed and built by Northridge students will compete to transport the most rice up a set of stairs in the allotted time during the "American Society of Mechanical Engineers Student Design Contest."

The contest, held Tuesday, March 29, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. outside of the university's Engineering Auditorium, located in the center of campus off Jacaranda Walk at 18111 Nordhoff Street in Northridge.

The Northridge competition is a precursor to the regional student competition held next month in Sacramento and ultimately, the national competition slated for November in Orlando, Fla. All four Northridge teams will compete in the regional competition. The Northridge competition will serve as a "de-bugging" and testing competition.

"The goal of the event is to help the engineering students get experience outside of the classroom," said Chia-Hung Chiu, vice president of the CSUN chapter of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the club hosting the event. "These projects are all volunteer. The students are working on these projects on their own time and putting in all their effort."

The 15 students on the four teams spend 10 to 12 weeks designing and constructing each robot on their spare time, Chiu said. The biggest struggle with this competition is balancing school with extracurricular activities and even jobs, he said.

Team booths will be displayed to allow the community, students, faculty and staff to inquire and learn about the origin of each robot, the design and the various building stages.

"The students in engineering are actually very active," said Chiu, "and they are actually applying what they are learning in their classes to the field of engineering. We don't get a lot of opportunities to work on a hands-on project like this."

Cal State Northridge's College of Engineering and Computer Science is home to several nationally recognized programs where students gain valuable hands-on experience working alongside faculty members and industry professionals on cutting-edge research.