Gareth Anstee
Postgraduate Associate
About
Gareth Anstee started studying Mechanical Engineering at City, University of London before transferring to the University of Greenwich to complete his degree. At the time, Greenwich was planning to enter the TV show “Robot Wars” and had recently brought the live show to its campus – which Gareth competed in during a gap year and thus decided to transfer. Gareth went on to work for the University, designing and building robots for educational outreach programs before taking on a scholarship to do a PhD on wider sport of Robot Combat.
This wasn’t to be however, as soon covid shut down all potential research avenues – and so Gareth went to work in the civil engineering industry, which he had undertaken during a gap year and amassing 8 years total experience on sites across the country testing materials. It was whilst working in industry that some of the robots Gareth had built came into the possession of the University of Chichester, and after being invited to talk about them – an offer was made to continue the PhD post covid at Chichester and lecture on their builds to students undertaking project work.
Gareth is internationally recognised within the field of Robot Combat, having appeared on TV shows internationally and domestically – and many of these robots are now on display at Chichester. He continues to actively compete, with a highest achievement being 4th in the world at the Featherweight World Championships held in the NEC. Outside of robots, Gareth takes an active interest in motor racing, and has played Rugby to county level whilst also representing his borough in the London Youth games for Kayaking and Sailing. In 2016, whilst chairman for Rugby at City, University of London, Gareth was recognised by BUCS as an “Unsung hero” for his work in promoting equality in sports, and continues to organise events around the country to promote STEM to the next generation.
Professional
Module coordinator for – Mechanical Principles, Engineering Group Projects, and Manufacturing Methods
Research
Currently undertaking a PhD at the University of Chichester, analysing whether the sport of “Robot Combat” has a “Meta”. Should a Meta exist for robot combat, this can be defined to study engineering optimisations within the sport – but should it not, then this can be used as a STEM educational tool. Should robot combat have no overall meta, then success must be determined by other choices than simple design options – thus success factors more on a roboteers understanding of the engineering principles of their design, and implementation of them, rather than purely the overall design itself. This justification, if proven, may incentivise robots use within education as a student could not simply copy a known existing design and expect it to work – but rather must develop their skills to optimise the design instead for the environment presented.
