08/09/2026
One of the pillars of the Robin Ames Foundation is Education, and we do that through a variety of ways. This summer we are sponsoring Blake Buskirk, during the West Virginia University Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE). Thank you to the donations, sponsors, and your participation in our race we are able to sponsor engineering students through their summer research.
Let's find out a little more about Blake:
Hometown: Logan, WV
High School: Logan High School
Major: Electrical Engineering with Minor in Physics
Year in School: Senior
Plans after graduation: Gain a Master's in Electrical Engineering with robotics specialization
Name of research project: Driver Intelligence Model for Distracted Driving
Hobbies: Rugby, Gaming, building electronics from scratch, One Piece and Pokémon card collecting, Photography, building legos
Motivation for research: I gained a large interest in robotics after joining the F1TENTH capstone, and when Dr. El-Wakeel mentioned the research opportunity, I took it because I would like to make driving safer for everyone. As a driver, you have to watch yourself and other drivers around you because it is not predictable, and most accidents happen due to distracted driving. I was in an accident last March due to a distracted driver, and it completely changed my life, so I would like to make the roads safer for everyone, especially by not allowing drowsy, drunk, or inebriated drivers behind the wheel. With the hopes of expanding the research to a larger scale for autonomous vehicles, the AI would allow for safety by taking over when the driver is distracted. On a more passionate side, I am interested in the research because it allows me to include computer science, computer engineering, and electrical engineering all in one section through robotics which is something that interests me a lot to continue doing.
