Schoolchildren display their robotic acumen

More than 150 students from 20 schools across Bangalore took part in the “Robotic Festival” held at Delhi Public School on Kanakapura Road here on Saturday. The contest was held in two categories  - students of class 5 to class 12 as juniors and those of higher classes as seniors. Class 8 students from NPS, Indiranagar were among the teams that took part in the event.

Speaking to Deccan Herald, Parvathi Ram, a team member said it was a challenge to complete the task within the stipulated time, especially when they had class tests going on. Nonetheless, the students put their minds together, and with a little supervision they were able to design their robot. Theirs was a round Robot which navigated between four predetermined metropolitan cities marked on the Indian map. With an android-based user interface to control the robot, the students were able to make the robot (placed on the Indian map) move from one city to another.

“We combed the Internet and SP Road alike, for parts. We divided the work forming sub teams working on vision, integration and movement. We received a lot of encouragement from our headmistress as well as our coach,” added Parvathi, describing the team's project. Her father, Vishnu Ram, who works for an IT firm city guided the students. The team had six students in all. 

The competition was organised by Novatech Robo. Head of Business Operation of Novatech, Javed Doddamani said the contest was being held globally in association with Lawrence Technological University, Michigan, US for the past 14 years. In India, it was first introduced last year in Bangalore. Winners in the senior category would get an opportunity for scholarship to the university. The winners of this will get to participate in the global level contest to be held in May in the US, he added.