From plant watering robots to light detectors to automated accident avoiding system, the Vivekananda Auditorium was teeming with a plethora of projects from various domains, on the 11th and 12th of February. Robotz India is a robotics event conducted by RAIF (Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Foundation) for school students, every year.
RAIF is an NGO, whose aim is to provide opportunities for women and under-represented school children. Being a non-profit organisation, they work towards promoting robotics and artificial intelligence among students and bringing out the innovators in them.
In this event, an array of interesting competitions was conducted, including Glider Mania, Gladiator Wars, Survivor, Mars Rover, Football League, Innovation Challenge and the Robotics Expo. A whopping count of nearly 500 students from fifty schools participated in these contests, with a majority of the prizes being bagged by the Zee School, Indraprastha International School, CK School and Maharishi Vidyamandir. A special mention of the students of Velammal Vidyalaya was made, for displaying their science projects alongside college students. It was remarkable to see such brilliant projects by school students, who could easily give college students a run for their money.
The competition was concluded by a valedictory function, wherein the Chief Guests, Dr Mariazeena Johnson (Managing Director of Sathyabama University) , Dr V I Lakshmanan (an internationally renowned entrepreneur) , Mr T S Krishnamurthy (former IRS officer and Chief Election Commissioner of India who introduced the first electronics voting system in our country), Mr R. Prabhakaran (Vice President, Amalgamations Group of Industries) and other eminent guests Dr S.Ganesan (Registrar of Anna University) , Dr P.Narayanasamy (Dean, CEG) and the technical chairperson of RAIF Dr T V Gopal (professor, department of Computer Science and engineering) shared their words of wisdom with the students. On the whole, the event was a grand success, with the keen and enthusiastic participation of bright, young minds from various parts of the country.
