Rising seniors Kevin Li and Brash Cook recently represented MBA on an international stage after qualifying for the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), the world’s largest pre-college STEM competition.

The pair earned their spot at ISEF after placing second at the Middle Tennessee Science and Engineering Fair (MTSEF) held at Belmont University earlier this spring. Their project focused on robotics and artificial intelligence, specifically exploring how robots could be trained in simulation environments before being deployed in the real world.

Inspired by advanced robotics systems such as Boston Dynamics’ “Spot” robot dog, Kevin and Brash began developing their project last fall. What started as an ambitious idea soon evolved into months of independent research, design, coding, and testing.

“We wanted to make something intelligent that was able to adapt on its own to its environment,” Kevin explained.

The students designed and built a quadruped robot while simultaneously conducting research into simulation-based robotic training. Their work examined how to improve the process of training robots virtually so that they could successfully perform tasks once transferred to physical hardware.

“A lot of intelligent machines today are trained in simulation instead of the real world,” Kevin said. “Training directly on physical hardware can damage the robot, takes a long time, and is much more expensive. Our research focused on how to better train these models in simulation so that when they are transferred to the real robot, they could still adapt and perform well.”

Much of the work was completed independently on weekends and during their free time throughout the school year. The students spent the early months designing and building the robot before shifting their attention to research and simulation work after winter break.

At MTSEF, the two spent hours presenting their research to multiple rounds of judges before ultimately earning second place and advancing to ISEF alongside several other top projects from the region.

ISEF, held this year in Phoenix, Arizona, brought together more than 2,000 students from around the world. For both students, the experience extended beyond the competition itself.

“It was probably the most diverse place I’ve ever been,” Brash said. “You’re surrounded by students from all over the world who are all passionate about research and innovation.”

The judging at ISEF was highly specialized, with many evaluators coming from backgrounds in computer science, engineering, and data science. While Kevin and Brash did not bring home an award, both described the experience as incredibly meaningful and motivating.

“I think robotics is going to continue making huge changes in the world,” Kevin said. “That’s definitely something I want to be involved with in the future.”

Brash added that one of the biggest takeaways was realizing the scale of opportunity available to students willing to pursue ambitious ideas.

“The world’s a big place,” he said. “But at the same time, I think our project showed that anybody can do research and robotics if they’re willing to put in the work.”

Kevin and Brash plan to continue their robotics research next year as they enter their senior year.