IIT Madras wins Indian Rover Challenge

Team Anveshak from IIT Madras, having been in the lead since the start of the final day of the Indian Rover Challenge 2019, went ahead to win the tournament at the MIT ground.

AGH Space Systems of the AGH University of Science and Technology, Poland, secured the second place while IUT Mars Rover, Islamic University of Technology, Bangladesh, won the third place.

As winner, IIT Madras was awarded Rs 50,000; second place winner AGH Space System received Rs 30,000 and IUT Bangladesh got Rs 20,000.

The tournament was organised by MIT with support from MRPL as the major sponsor and The Mars Society, US, for technical guidance.

The second edition of the IRC witnessed keen competition all through. Five Indian teams and five overseas teams participated.

The third and final day consisted a Science Cache tasks for the teams to collect soil from the site and analyse it with onboard sensors and tests. The task was based on the chances of finding life on Mars. The teams had to present their findings in a 15-minute presentation.

IUT Mars Rover scored the highest in the task with AGH Space System standing second and Team Anveshak coming third.

At the valedictory, Prashanth Baliga, general manager (Corporate Communication), MRPL, was the chief guest. Dr Vinod Thomas, registrar (Evaluation), MAHE, was the guest of honour. Dr Srikanth Rao, director of MIT, was also present.