A team of seven students from different schools in Mumbai put their heads together and designed a robot, Neutrino that can separate pollutants from the water and help clean contaminated water. The team has been shortlisted from about 100 applications received to represent India in the FIRST Global Challenge, an Olympics-style robotics competition that was held in the US from July 16-18.
The seven-member team consists of equal contributors — Rahesh Saraf, Team Captain; Aadiv Shah, Team Spokesperson; Harsh Bhatt, Alliance Strategist; Vatsin Suchak, Alliance Analyst; Adhyyan Sekhsaria, Robot Tactician; Tejas Ramdas, Robot Controller, Raghav Ringshia, Robot Driver and Nilesh Shah, the team’s mentor. They represent schools like Jamnabai Narsee School, Dhirubhai Ambani International School, Utpal Shanghvi School, Oberoi International School and Ecole Mondiale World School and are sponsored by Tata ClassEdge, Tata’s initiative in the education sector.
Explaining their presentation, the team spokesperson, Aadiv Shah, said, “The match started with 40 blue balls and 10 orange balls that were flowing in a river. The blue balls represented clean water, while the orange balls represented contaminants. The goal of each team was to work together, collect as many blue balls and store them in their designated water reserve, located at the front of the arena. At the same time, the 10 orange balls had to be placed in the laboratory, which was located at the rear of the arena, atop a bridge.”
For each blue ball that was sent to the water reserve and each orange ball that was sent to the laboratory, points were allotted. Once two minutes had passed, the match moved into the next phase where the arena was flooded with blue balls. The teams had to ensure that they got their robots to safety and there were two ways they could do so. The first was to get the robot to the bridge near the laboratory. The second was to have the robot climb to safety by grabbing one of the hanging bars on the side of the arena that spanned the width of the arena.
The 13th edition of the FIRST Global Challenge was chiefly organised in North America and this is the first year when participation has been opened to other countries. India is participating for the first time and received 100 applications from across the country.
Team Neutrino was selected to represent India in Washington where the final round was held. The competition aims at finding innovative solutions using robotics technology to reduce, manage and recycle waste.
“We know each other’s strengths and weaknesses, so we divided the roles accordingly,” said Aadiv. The team intends to create awareness on water conservation and access to clean water through their project.
Supporting the initiative, Nirav Khambhati, CEO of Tata ClassEdge, said, “We are happy to be associated with the FIRST Global Challenge, which is being held for the first time in India. It is an excellent platform to inspire students to learn, think, imagine and use technology creatively.
