TurtleTours

2024 Fan Favorite

Team TurtleTours is made up of Mechanical Engineering graduate student Trevor Landurand, Biomedical Engineering and Biotechnology graduate student Myron Chee, and Computer Engineering graduate students Nathan Uhunsere, Vuldindsky Fanfan, and Michael Fisher. These students are developing a robot tour guide to solve the problems of understaffing and poor customer service. Team TurtleTours brought attention to the recurring issue of large businesses and events not having a sufficient number of staff members in the areas where they are needed, such as event security. This team was awarded the Fan Favorite Award and $1,000 in funding at the DifferenceMaker $50,000 Idea Challenge.

The team explained that their creation will improve customer satisfaction because it opens employees up to different roles that robots cannot have the title of. The robot they create will handle the tour aspect of events while employees can focus on security and other important positions. The robot will have the required functionality of a tour guide such as processing images and other objects, speaking to users, and navigating designated areas. With the use of this robot customers will overall be much more satisfied with the event service that they receive.