I am thrilled to announce the results of this year’s SPOTSeven Lab Optimization Challenge! This year, we presented the students of the “Optimization” and “Numerical Methods” master’s courses at TH Köln with a particularly tough nut to crack: Optimizing a 10-Link Robot Arm to reach a target in a maze-like environment full of obstacles. 🤖🧩
To simulate real-world conditions, we didn’t make it easy:
✅ Noise: The evaluation server returned noisy solutions.
✅ Instability: We simulated server crashes, so requests failed with a certain probability.
The competition was incredibly fast-paced and competitive. I was especially impressed by the engagement of the students—seeing teams working hard on their algorithms deep into the winter holidays and even during Christmas was truly inspiring! 🎄💻
3rd Place: Team Eigen Squad (Sreelakshmi Manikkoth Rajeev, Hareem Mustafa, Krishnapriya Karumathil, Sereena Jency) 
2nd Place: Team Panda (Daniel Indalecio Rodriguez Garduno, Anwar Hosen, Kareem Yassen) 
1st Place: Team Black Viking (Soheil Ayati) 
students of the “Optimization” and “Numerical Methods” master’s courses at TH Köln 
students of the “Optimization” and “Numerical Methods” master’s courses at TH Köln 
students of the “Optimization” and “Numerical Methods” master’s courses at TH Köln
A massive congratulations to our top teams who successfully navigated these uncertainties:
🥇 1st Place: Team Black Viking (Soheil Ayati) – Best Value: 0.1169
🥈 2nd Place: Team Panda (Daniel Indalecio Rodriguez Garduno, Anwar Hosen, Kareem Yassen) – Best Value: 0.2195
🥉 3rd Place: Team Eigen Squad (Sreelakshmi Manikkoth Rajeev, Hareem Mustafa, Krishnapriya Karumathil, Sereena Jency) – Best Value: 0.3849
Your ability to handle constraints and instability was outstanding. Well done!