In early June, two teams from Delhi Public School International, Pushp Vihar (Delhi) — comprising Ahaan Jain, Ayaan Khoshal, Raghav Tiwari and Shiv Verma (class VI), and Vansha Gupta and Mohammed Ismail (class VII) — were ranked #2 and #3 in separate categories in version 7.0 of the annual International Robotics Competition (IRC), conducted in Seattle by Building Blocks Pvt. Ltd (a Gurgaon-based educational company) in association with the University of Washington (UW).

Launched last October IRC (India) 2014-15 attracted 1,500 school teams which competed in the zonal rounds across three categories — senior, middle and junior schools — of whom 120 qualified (40 in each category) for the national finals, convened in New Delhi on January 21. In the national finals, Vansha and Ismail (middle school category champs) earned an all-expenses paid trip to Seattle. But the four sixth graders (juniors) who bagged the ‘most innovative design’ award funded their own passage. Forty-five teams from five countries — India, China, Bangladesh, Maldives and the US — competed in the grand finale held in UW from June 2-9.

In Seattle, middle school teams were required to build a robot to replace human labour in a hypothetical diamond mine in Surat.

“We applied basic scientific concepts such as the pulley, dumper-truck, scissor lift and gear systems to design our robot,” says Vansha. Robots of competitors in the junior school category were required to lift miniature train coaches and place them on a staircase-like platform.

India’s top-ranked schools routinely promote the learning of robotics technology to develop students’ higher order thinking skills (HOTS) and help them grasp STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) principles through application.

“In the long run, teaching robotics will tremendously benefit India’s economy as it helps eliminate labour drudgery and free up time for employees to improve productivity. We’ll be using robotics in whatever careers we choose,” says Vansha.

Wind in your sails!

Swati Roy (Delhi)

Also read: CISCE to introduce AI and robotics at ICSE and ISC curriculum