A two-day Robotics workshop “Technosia-2014” was held at GD Goenka University from 30-31st January 2014. A total of 16 teams comprised of 5-6 participants made up of students from GD Goenka University, GD Goenka World Institute (Lancaster University, UK), Amity University (Manesar, Gurgaon), Dronacharya Institute of Technology (Farukhnagar) and Shiv Nadar University (U.P). A total of 86 students participated in the workshop out of which 28 were from universities/institutes other than G D Goenka University. Sessions were delivered expertly by Mr. Nitin, Mr. Pavitra and Mr. Saurabh from Spark Labs (India).

Workshop comprised of 4 sessions distributed over two days. During session no.1, students studied the fundamentals of electronics required for robotics. This session formed the basis of other sessions as students were introduced to basic components required to implement a robotics system. Session no.2 was composed of practical knowledge about various sensors, motors, microprocessor ATMEGA8 and related systems present on the circuit board given to students as a kit. Kit comprised of all the required components for making a programmable mobile robot. For many students it was their first experience to programme and also for some it was first time that they were making a robot themselves.

Students first learned to code in embedded C language to control for LED on circuit board. Then they learnt the basics of connecting Infra-red (IR) light sensors to detect as proximity sensor which was further used to make advanced level robots. Session no.3 on second day was dedicated towards implementation of line following robots using IR sensor. Students experimented with various configurations of these kinds of robots to turn them smartly and got their very first lessons around artificial intelligence. Students were very excited when they realized that making such complicated robotics systems is actually quite easy.

After enough practice, session no.4 comprised of the final competition in which students had to make a black line following robot using only one IR sensor. Racing again time of 25 minutes, three teams became successful within the time frame. One team from GD Goenka University and two teams from GD World Institute were chosen as winner of competition. It was particularly exciting news for GD Goenka University first year students since they were competing with third year students from other universities but still managed to make a name for themselves. Winner will participate in a national level competition at IIT Guwahati in few months.

Workshop concluded with happy faces and content students. Students had an exciting experience about making advance configuration robots and many of them are looking forward to continue making efforts in this direction and competing in future competitions of this kinds. Students also found these sessions particularly useful towards their studies in mechanics and electronics. They could correlate their theoretical knowledge using robots and hence were very satisfied with their time during the workshop well spent.

“Technosia – 2014” was well managed by Faculty members Dr. Shalini Bhaskar Bajaj, Dr. Sandeep Nagar, Dr. Meenakshi Lakhwani, Mr. Abhishek Pandey, Mr. Mandeep Narula and Ms. Hitesha Yadav of School of Engineering, GD Goenka University.
GD Goenka University congratulates all the successful teams of “Technosia – 2014”, particularly the winners from the host university.

Winners

Visit the School of Engineering Website: www.gdgoenkauniversity.comuniversity/schoolofengineering