15 September 2026 6:00PM- 8:00PM EDT
Join INCOSE Michigan for a special September dinner meeting as we visit the Michigan Mars Rover Team (MRover) on the University of Michigan’s Campus and present the INCOSE Foundation’s Excellence in Systems Engineering Award trophy. MRover is a student‑run, multidisciplinary team that designs, builds, and tests a complete Mars rover each year to compete in the University Rover Challenge (URC).
At the 2026 URC finals—concluding May 30, 2026 at the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah, where the top 38 finalists from a field of 116 teams across 11 countries competed—MRover placed fifth overall, earned the highest score in the Autonomous Navigation mission, and won the first‑ever INCOSE Foundation Excellence in Systems Engineering Award, taking first place in the competition’s Systems Engineering category with their rover, Phil.
The award is a fitting recognition of real systems engineering in action. Fielding a rover that navigates rough terrain, manipulates objects with a five‑degree‑of‑freedom robotic arm, performs on‑board science and sampling, and executes autonomous missions demands exactly the disciplines our members practice daily—requirements management, interface control, subsystem integration, verification, and risk management across mechanical, electrical, software, and science teams. This is systems engineering made tangible, by students.
We will tour the team’s workspace and see the competition rover up close, present the INCOSE Foundation trophy, and then continue the conversation over dinner at nearby Relish Restaurant. It is a great opportunity to celebrate the next generation of systems engineers, talk shop with the team, and connect with fellow members.