A class of second-year UBC physics students opted for robots instead of tweezers to play a life-sized game of Operation that counts as their final exam.

The undergrads spent the past six weeks building autonomous Doctor-Bots, equipped with an onboard microprocessor as powerful as a desktop computer 20 years ago, to lift fake organs out of cavities in a model without touching its edges.

Friends and family cheered wildly through the exam as students experienced feelings of triumph and angst watching their creations at work.

"Certainly not all of them are going to go off and build robots in the future," said course instructor Jonathan Nakane, "but they are going to build whatever comes after the iPod."

Amira Eltony, 19, and her team of classmates designed Dr. Claw, a foot-tall robot with an electromagnetic loading arm and hand-made proximity sensors.

Though Eltony's invention faltered at points in the first round she said the physics class is a leg up in a competitive field.

"It's really going to help us out in our future co-op terms and future jobs because we have hands-on experience now," she said.