One for the record books

A team of Mumbai kids bags the first ever award for India at largest robotics meet

Technology has come a long way since the days when Legos were mere plastic blocks for kids. The 2016 Vex Robotics Competition for middle school and high school students was hosted in April at Louisville, United States, where robots were built using these simple building blocks. What’s more, it was a group of four young Mumbai-based boys who won the Sportsmanship Award at this competition, making it India’s first Vex Award ever. The boys also became part of the Guinness World Record for the largest robotics event by attending Vex.

Ten-year-olds Anav Agarwal and Kashyan Damani from Ecole Mondiale World School, and eleven-year-olds Aadit Lakhani and Mahir Shah from Jamnabai Narsee School had to go through several rounds of national competition before making their way to the world level competition. The kids came to know about the robotics competition at the Children’s Technology Workshop (CTW) and after qualifying in the nationals by building four robots, they were off to Kentucky to pursue their dreams.

Mahir says, “I have been learning how to make robots for more than two years.” He continues, “Taking part in an international level competition was my first time though.”

Out of the boys, Aadit was the only one to have participated in an international competition, after having participated in the World Robotic Olympiad in Sochi, Russia in 2014. Aadit says, “This was my second time at a competition and I was quite confident about our robot. I love to conduct experiment with robots. Each is different in shape, size, height, and weight, and there are other precisions which depends on the type of the games it’s involved in”

Indeed, the kids’ love for building and ingenuity were put to test at Vex, where they had stiff competition from 1,100 other teams not only from the US but also from Canada, China, South Korea, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Ethiopia, Paraguay, Mexico and Puerto Rico.

The robot that the team created, took part in the Vex IQ Bankshot Challenge in the elementary section. Here, it had to move across a maze, knock off 16 balls on a cut-out ramp, collect up to a maximum 44 balls on the maze, dump them across the fence and park itself on a ramp, all within one minute. Points were scored according to the number of balls collected.

The road to the contest had not been smooth sailing for the boys, however. Just before leaving for the competition, the boys were told that their mentor Sujit K. Pal wouldn’t be joining them, since he couldn’t get a visa for the trip. The boys’ parents stepped in during the crisis situation, mentoring them throughout the competition. Today, they couldn’t be more proud of the boys. “I felt like they are the soldiers and they are fighting, doing this for our country,” said a proud Richa Agarwal, Anav’s mother. “It was a stressful few days for us and in the end we’re happy, not just because the boys won, but because the whole experience in itself was enriching. We have learned a lot and the kids bonded well.”

Aadit’s father, J. Lokhani said that the happiness the boys got from winning was priceless. “It’s extremely fulfilling, and the time, energy and money we have put is worth it.” He signed off with advice to parents everywhere, to allow children to pursue their ambitions, saying, “Encourage your children to follow their dream no matter how off the chart it looks; it is where they find their happiness.”