The Goan robotics team is all set to represent India and has planned to leverage their learnings to create massive awareness about benefits of STEM and how competitive robotics is a game-changing sport.
About STEM
The STEM Education Trust (SET) is a registered non-profit, non-government organisation that is dedicated to transforming the educational landscape in India. SET strongly believes in transforming the youth of today to become the leaders of tomorrow.
With a mission to provide learning opportunities to students across the nation, particularly in under-represented communities, the SET is committed to bridging the gap and empowering the next generation through Robotics and STEM education.
Recognizing the immense potential of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields and robotics, SET believes that every child in India, regardless of their geographical location or socio-economic background, deserves access to quality education in these areas.
Robotics and STEM education equip students with critical thinking, problem-solving, and analytical skills that are essential for success in the modern world.
What is the FIRST Global Challenge?
In order to achieve these objectives, SET partners with FIRST Global each year to select and mentor a team of students to represent India at the FIRST Global Challenge, an Olympics-style international robotics competition that takes place in a different country every year.
This year, the competition is being hosted in Singapore from October 7 to 10, 2023. Thousands of students from more than 190 countries will come together to collaboratively compete in a thrilling robotics competition highlighting the importance of renewable energy.
Every year, the FIRST Global invites each nation to send a team to build and programme a robot to compete. Teams from over 180 countries work together to complete tasks in a game themed around some of the greatest challenges that our planet faces.
The objective is to create an understanding about STEM and cooperation among the youth of the world as they use their abilities to solve global problems.
This year, SET has selected an extremely enthusiastic and talented team from Goa which has the potential of making the most significant impact in promoting STEM and robotics in their community and beyond. The STEM Education Trust has a far-reaching and transformative impact.
About FGC Team India 2023
The team selected to represent India at FGC 2023 comprises 5 students (Four boys and a girl).
The team members belong to Team Legogoa, a community club that has been pursuing robotics for the past 6 years and has won multiple national and international awards. The team is known to already possess skills like robot building, 3D designing and 3D printing, conducting workshops and marketing to name a few.
The details of the team members are as follows,
Apurva Katkar (Class 10, Kendriya Vidyalaya, Bambolim)
Atharv Sakhalkar (first year diploma, Agnel Ashram, Verna)
Sai Pranav Gandhi (Class 8, Sharada Mandir School, Miramar)
Viraj Marathe (Class 8, Dr K B Hedgewar Vidyamandir, Sankhali)
Venkatesh Dempo (Class 8, Sharada Mandir School, Miramar)
Selection process
The team has been selected after a tough selection process competing against experienced and veteran teams from other parts of the country.
Not only did they build a contraption that flung a tennis ball 27 mts using the concepts of projectile motion, but also impressed the judges during a series of selection interviews with their passion and commitment to solve the tennis ball challenge within a short time frame proving their capabilities to represent the country.
The Impact
Besides this, the Goan team has also planned to leverage its learnings to create massive awareness about benefits of STEM and how competitive robotics is a game-changing sport.
It plans to conduct a massive STEM challenge in schools of Goa with the support of the government and catapulting Goa via the CARES scheme to the forefront in the education space of the country.