ELSOC-BMSCE

e-Yantra Robotics Competition

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The present landscape for the development of Higher Education systems in India has received many notable contributions to the field in the last decade or two. One of the most ubiquitous and noticeable sources of these contributions has been the rapid boom of technological advances, which has broadened the horizon for organizations whose primary focus is the growth of our education system.

Among the many reputable organizations in this field, is e-Yantra, a robotics outreach program that originated as an initiative of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT Bombay). Funded by the Ministry of Education, their objective is “to harness the talent of young engineers to to solve problems using technology across a variety of domains such as: agriculture, manufacturing, defense, home, smart-city maintenance and service industries”. They nurture young engineers with a practical outlook to help in providing pragmatic solutions to real world problems.

Their flagship initiative, has been the e-Yantra Robotics Competition (eYRC), a 2-stage contest that comprises abstracted gamified problem statements (called Themes) range from a variety of skills including ROS, Machine Learning, Image Processing, 3D Designing, Embedded Systems, Functional Programming, etc. The competition is open to students from an engineering or polytechnic background and is conducted completely online over a period of 5-6 months, during the first stage, post which a selected set of participants from Stage 1 is selected into Stage 2. The leading 5-6 teams are then hosted for the National Finals at IIT Bombay in March every year where they demonstrate their projects before a jury. The experience is hands-on and is meant to enhance and complement a participant’s engineering education. Prizes include a 6 week paid internship at IIT Bombay and cash prizes worth 10,00,000 INR.

The amount of expertise gained through the competition is said to be unparalleled by any other technical competition all over India. Manu Saraogi, who recently completed his tenure as e-Yantra’s Campus Ambassador for B.M.S College of Engineering, commended Prof. Kavi Arya - the founder of e-Yantra - and his entire team at IIT Bombay for the influence they have had on his technical and non technical skills throughout the course of the competitions and the internship. e-Yantra continues to nurture young talent and has now expanded to countries abroad, in South East Asia and Africa. Their search for engineers who possess the potential to make a difference continues as they provide a platform to hone the skills of these bright minds every year through this competition, encouraging millions of students to try and make a difference.

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