The e-Yantra Robotics Competition (eYRC) is a unique annual competition conducted by the Ministry of Education, launched in the month of August every year for undergraduate students in science and engineering colleges, polytechnic. This year's dates have not been finalised yet due to the Coronavirus pandemic and the ongoing crisis. Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal, who is recovering from COVID-19, tweeted about the competition and encouraged students to participate.
Teams selected as a part of the competition are given a robotic kit filled with accessories and video tutorials to help them learn basic concepts in embedded systems and microcontroller programming. Abstracts of real-world problems assigned as "themes" are then implemented by the teams using the robotic kits. The winners of this competition are given the opportunity for a summer internship at IIT Bombay through the e-Yantra summer internship programme. Themes can range over a variety of skills from ROS, Machine Learning, Image Processing, 3D Designing to Embedded Systems and much more.
The competition is conducted completely online over a period of five to six months in a 'learning while competing' mode. During this period the teams work on tasks – each task being a step in the learning/problem-solving process. Based on the performance in Stage 1, teams are selected for further stages of the competition.
"Through this competition, students not only learn and explore technologies but also develop skills to analyze a problem, finding alternate solutions and presenting an appropriate solution to the problem - skills essential in any academic or entrepreneurial endeavour," states the Ministry of Education on its e-Yantra portal.
Are you eligible to take part?
-The competition is open for registration to full-time engineering/ science/ polytechnic college students who are studying in universities or colleges, pursuing a degree in any of these disciplines.
-Each team must have four members.
-All members of a team must belong to the same college or institution. However, team members may belong to different disciplines and years of study.
-Each student is allowed to join only one team.
-Every team should have a designated team leader, who is responsible for all communications with e-Yantra.
