Meeting With Eli Lilly & Co Application Engineer

By Fernando, David, Nalin, Nirjha, Pavit, and Alyssa

On January 24, 2026, our team met virtually with a Robotics Application Engineer from the Global Robotics Department of a pharmaceutical company, Eli Lilly & Co., for a focused design and strategy discussion.

During the Zoom session, we walked through our robot’s progression so far this season, highlighting both design successes and current pain points. A major focus of the conversation was improving the reliability of our wing intake system. We discussed mechanical factors affecting consistency, such as alignment, tolerances, and interaction with game elements. We also thought through what converting to a swerve chassis might be like, discussing both the pros and cons. Ultimately, we decided that it was impractical, and that the pros did not outweigh the cons.

Beyond hardware, the conversation expanded into strategic software use, specifically how a virtual field map could be leveraged to improve autonomous performance, and potentially even teleop.

Overall, the session reinforced the importance of designing with both reliability and strategy in mind. We left the meeting with concrete solutions we could iterate upon, especially on improving the intake.