UCLA ASME

Who are we?

We are the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) at UCLA, a community dedicated to fostering innovation through six unique technical projects. These projects provide students with invaluable hands-on engineering experience, exploring a wide range of fields.

Group Picture of ASME Board

Our projects span a variety of fields from the aerospace industry through the University Rover Challenge (URC) building mars-like rovers to underwater exploration robotics with Bruin Underwater Robotics (BUR). Additionally, we have combat robotics, where students work in small teams to design and build their own 3lb robots. Our flagship combat robotics team is similar, but takes on the challenge of creating a 30lb robot. For those not interested in combat robotics, we also have a creative robotics team that designs and develops unique inventions, such as the Surgical Robot Technician, the Bruin Bear, and Wall-E-inspired projects called X1 Robotics. Additionally, ASME offers a training program called Fabrication and Design Essentials (FADE), which provides students of all majors with foundational skills in CAD, manufacturing, and electronics. Here are some picture of projects that our team has been working on this year:

How can you help?

Unfortunately, this year we were unable to secure sufficient funding to fully finance our technical projects. As a result, many teams have had to scale back the creativity and functionality of their designs or personally cover expenses to bring their ideas to life. Below are descriptions of ASME's six technical projects and how your support can make a difference:

Your contribution will give students more opportunities to learn, innovate, and create cutting-edge solutions in robotics, manufacturing, and design. Thank you for your support in empowering the next generation of engineers!

More Information about our Tech Projects!

At ASME, we have 6 technical projects for which we are raising funds, each providing hands-on engineering experience to students. When you donate to our organization, you are supporting the technical and professional development of the engineers of the future.

Combat Robotics is a project consisting of multiple 3-5 person teams, each team designing and manufacturing their own 3lb. combat robot. Teams fight head-to-head in an on-campus internal competition.

Flagship Combat Robotics consists of two 15-20 person teams, building two 30lb combat robots. Our projects this year are Small, a vertical spinner with large compliant wheels, and Apollo, our first autonomous combat robot. The robots will be entered into a tournament style competition.

X1 Robotics chooses a creative robotics idea to develop and build over the course of a year, applying advanced engineering methods to a novel design. Our project this year is a quadruped robot, made to resemble a bruin bear.

Bruin Underwater Robotics creates an autonomous underwater robot that can complete a series of tasks in a pool: grasping objects, navigating a course, identifying targets from audio signals, and more.

University Rover Competition is an all women’s robotics team which builds rovers capable of traversing rough terrain and completing tasks like that of a Mars rover. The rover is able to navigate a Mars-like terrain and complete missions remotely. The rover will compete in an international competition against other Universities. This is the first year of the project's development.

Fabrication and Design Essentials is a training program providing students of all majors with a technical foundation in CAD, manufacturing, and electronics. Students leave this program with fundamentals engineering skills to help them succeed in any technical project and in the professional field.