Pune students win IIT’s robotics challenge

Four Pune engineering students won first prize at Indian Institute of Technology’s (IIT) annual national robotic challenge — Nexus 07. The competition was held on Sunday at IIT-Powai, to test participants’ self-made robots.

The robots had to lift four 10cm cubes to a height of 60cm in the least possible time.

The winning team completed the task in 35 seconds. “During our practice, our best time was 32 seconds. We took a chance by coming to Mumbai as the competition is much tougher but it paid off,” said 19-year-old Prateek Banga of SKN Engineering College, Pune.

Apart from a prize of Rs5,000, the winners got a wild card entry to Vertigo, a part of Techfest-2008, an international science and technology festival organised by IIT.

The Mumbai chapter of the competition drew 125 teams from Hyderabad, Pune, Jaipur and Goa.

“Even though we held the same competition at seven other centres this year, students still came from these places to try their luck a second time,” said Pallav Singh, Nexus manager.

The event saw participation from just one school. “We were competing against engineering students. Our school sponsored us for the event,” said Abhishek Patil, a class 12 student from Podar high school.