Although only 14 years old, Swas and his team, Robotrek, were awarded first place in the elementary category for their ingeniously-designed mintaure robot during the regional rounds of the Indian Robot Olympiad (IRD) here at the Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological University Museum on Sunday.
Swas has already participated in as many as three prestigious robot building competitions. “This competition is more about programming and research than the others I have participated in,” Swas said, speaking to Deccan Herald.
It was a day when a number of children as young as eight to 10 years old, wholly enthusiastic about robotics and machines, were seen immersed in their laptops, assembling their machines and getting them to perform the tasks set forth at the competition.
Prodded and encouraged by their parents on one hand, these children had to deal with problems normally faced by mechanical engineers and car designers: getting mechanics of their machines right.
The competition was divided into senior, junior and elementary category with each having their own tasks and challenges.
The competition involves assembling the parts of the robot from scratch within a certain period of time and finishing a specific task in each category.
As many as 50 teams from the State participated in the competition.
“The winning teams in each category will qualify for the National Robotics Olympiad and those who win there will take part in the World Robotics Olympiad scheduled to be held at Jakarta,” said Mohan Nimbalkar, Regional Manager of EduTech, the event organisers. “After here, we will be proceeding to Coimbatore,” he added.
Two teams from City — team Legotech (Senior) and team Robotrek (Junior) and one from Hyderabad, Eurreka (elementary) were adjudged as winners of the regional competition.
K G Kumar, the Director of Visvesvaraya University Museum said the excitement and joy of children showed on their faces while handling their machines. “Such an initiative is a very good opportunity for children to get a hands-on experience which will greatly help them in future,” he added.
Source: http://tinyurl.com/mm2ueew
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