Robotics competition for school children- First Tech Challenge to be held in Pune
Pune, January 27, 2020: First Tech Challenge (FTC) India Championship 2019-20, the robotics competition for school and Junior College students in India will take place from January 31 to February 2, 2020 at Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex, Boxing Stadium, Mahalunge – Balewadi. Organized by InfinityX Tech Systems Pvt. Ltd. the championship in its 9th edition will be held from 10 am to 5.30 pm on February 1 and 2.
The competition will be inaugurated on February 1 while the semi-final and final round and the award ceremony will be held on February 2 in presence of Dr. Abhay Jere, Chief Innovation Officer (CIO), Ministry of HRD, Government of India and H. R. Gaikwad, Chairman, BVG India.
Being a national competition, about 47 teams will take part in the competition from across India from cities including Pune, Shirur, Jalna, Mumbai, Aurangabad, Wai Satara, New Delhi, Rajkot, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai and Vishakhapatnam. The theme for this year’s competition will be ‘Skystone’, which is based on Star Wars movie theme of building a city in space.
Two winning teams will be selected, which will then represent India at global championship at Detroit, USA during April 28 and May 2, 2020. To boost chances of FTC India winner doing well at FTC USA, the organizers will provide mentorship to the teams so that they get well prepared for FTC USA.
Special teams from several schools from rural areas, corporation run schools, blind schools among others will also participate in the competition, which will include a team from Pune from Blind School, 4 ‘all girls’ teams from rural schools of Shirur, 5 teams from rural schools from Jalna and Aurangabad, 3 teams from a school from Wai, Satara whose students come from family of farm helpers, a team from the slums of Dharavi, Mumbai, 4 teams from Municipal Corporation schools from Bangalore, Chennai, Pune and Delhi respectively, a team from remote area of Kurnool and a team from rural village near Delhi.
Each team will be provided with a robotic kit by the organizers at the competition and since the building of robots will require knowledge of mechanics and electronic, there will be mentors who will guide the students in understanding the theme of the competition and build the robot accordingly. Similarly, InfinityX STEM Foundation, a not-for-profit Section 8 company set up by the organizers will sponsor 10 robotic kits to the students from lower strata of society to encourage their participation.
“With 30 teams participating in 2019, the count this year has grown to 47 Teams. The objective of FTC is to promote Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education among students in India. It is observed that students participating in FTC perform better in their educational career as it helps them build their self-confidence, knowledge and life-skills,” said Ashvin Savant, Founder and CEO, InfinityX.
FTC is supported by Qualcomm as Presenting Partner and Vishwakarma University as Program Partner. It has been also supported by NRB Bearings Ltd., PTC, BVG India, Travwold, Patanjali Divya Jal, FIAT India, Mercedes Benz, Capegemini, Persistent, NVIDIA, Symbiosis Skill Open University, Hallmark Outdoor and other corporates joining the event. FTC has been endorsed by ARAI, STPI, SEAP, SAE India and Savitribai Phule Pune University.
