The Calicut diaries: Kidobotikzians@Tathva '16 (Contd....)

What word has two ‘O’s and an ‘R’ in it? You are thinking of the word “Robot”. Nope, we are talking of the other word- “Hooray”!

Yes, “Hooray” it was!

The bandwagon of roboticists at NIT-C have finished their campaign and are now retiring to the stables!

Yep. It was the third and final day of the tour of Kidobotikzians to Tathva ‘16. The event, which was conducted ever so wonderfully by the college, was a wonderful experience for the students, their accompanying faculty and the visitors too. Especially considering the fact Kidobotikzians revelled in an event that was for the standard of Graduates! 

All efforts put by Kidobotikzians up until the event paid off in full measure as they are returning home tonight with a string of trophies- each a hard earned, hard fought and wonderfully cherished victory!

The third day began with a great deal of promise with a string of interesting events lined up. Today being the third and final day, many of the events of the previous days had their final rounds that were held today. And Kidobotikzians, on their virtue of being seasoned roboticists dominated most of these events. The final results tally did no justice to the average of these young roboticists. To think of it that school going young students travelled to a college fest and participated in it with much success against the best of college students from across the nation is quite an accomplishment. A major credit to all this goes to the students and their faculty who spent many an hours helping students understand the concepts of robotics to a degree of professionalism that these kids know the concepts at the back of their hands. A lot of credit is also owed to the parents who have been a constant support to the wishes of these young students and who help them try such interesting activities as a part of their personal development.

As we sign off, our bunch of roboteers are already gearing up for the next big event- FTC. With detailed planning and preparation underway, Kidobotikzians are expected to work wonders at every major event henceforth! 

Click here for the photos of the event: Facebook Album

Happy Roboting!

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The Calicut diaries: Kidobotikzians@Tatva '16

A trip to the “God’s Own Country” is usually one that nobody affords to miss. All of us who’ve been there can relate to the beautiful beaches, the lovely shorelines and the wonderful weather. But when you also roboting into this mix, it becomes an experience for a lifetime . Thanks to NIT-Calicut’s Tatva ’16, Kidobotikzians are enjoying the very same thing at the moment!

A strong contingent of students belonging to the Kidobotikz student community are currently here at NIT Calicut taking part in what can be named a full on tech-extravaganza! Called Tatva ‘16, it is an annual tech festival. Featuring students from across the country, the two day event can be considered a tough event. As we come close to the end of the first of the two day event, we wanted to take a break from all the roboting action and tell you how our experience was. 

Being a tech fest, Tatva has an elaborate set of events for the best of geeks amongst us. To test their roboting skills and prove their mettle, Kidobotikzians had decided to take part in an event that is meant for college students. Yes, you read it right! Kidobotikzians are the only school students who are taking part in the event meant for colleges. And the story doesn’t end their. A few of them have actually bested their performance to take home a few prizes.

The first day of Tatva ‘16 began with some exceptional brouhaha thanks to the tough competition among the participating teams. As a matter of fact, the campaign was kickstarted on a winning note when Vishal Desh, who is a strong favourite at the event, took the honours for winning Accelero Botx. The contest which happened yesterday saw Vishal contest against some fierce opposition and emerge victorious.

Meanwhile, the itinerary for the second day, today, was jam packed with truly amazing events such as Dirt Race, Schwimmwagen, Collision Course and Death Race League of Machines. While the first two were events which involved the usage ATV robots, the latter two were events which were robotic battles. The star event for Kidobotikzians was Amazed where four students belonging to the community- Vishal Desh, Abhishek Shankar, Chitresh, S.Charan- won prizes. 

As we go into the third day, there are several more events in the fray and the Kidobotikzians are fresh from their exploits and the first two days. With still a lot of exciting events to be played out, one can expect the Kidobotikzians to bring back a lot of trophies.

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Graduation Day 2016 ! !

“The Hats whirled skyward, carried by bright, new hopes and propelled by big daring dreams !”

For most students, Graduation Day is one of the best moment of their lives. It represents their translation from the cocooned life of schooling and college to the open competitive world of jobs and career. Graduation Day represents the moment of cusp after which the life of these young students change. It is that day which is filled with excitement and nostalgia. 

That being said, today was Graduation day at Kidobotikz. It is the day when our young students graduate from Kidobotikz after years of toiling with robotics. Graduation Day, which is an annual ceremony took place this year at the Golden Paradise Hall in Chennai. Being an important day in their life, all students had assembled in sharp attire to reflect the atmosphere of the solemn occasion. 

The event was held between 4PM and 6PM. The welcome address, delivered by Ms.Sneha Priya, Director, Kidobotikz, extended a warm welcome to the parents, students and faculty who had gathered at the hall. After a brief introduction about Kidobotikz and its activities through a narrative video, the annual report was delivered. The annual report, which discussed about the various activities of the students and their achievements over the past academic year, stressed upon the role robotics has played in empowering students academically and mentally. Apart from their academic strides, the various roboting activities students had taken part in through robotics competitions and projects were discussed upon. The role of projects such as SwachhBot and AgriBot and the involvement of students in these path breaking projects was also touched upon. It is of great pride to Kidobotikz that such student-driven initiatives were playing an important role in solving some important issues plaguing the society. 

Dr. S.K Patnaik adressing the students

The Chief Guest for the event was Dr.S.K.Patnaik, Professor, CEG, who had graciously agreed to preside upon the event. Having been a faculty of the directors of Kidobotikz in their college days, he was appreciative of their efforts in democratizing the core concepts of electronics and robotics for the students of the school level. He reflected on the fact that the education system had failed to identify the core interests of students and push them in the direction. He was successful in garnering the audience’s attention when compared the current education scenario to that of a “rat race”. He opined that the methodologies adopted by Kidobotikz to promote technical skill development through an innovative robotics based education for students had the potential to better the standards of education in our country and such efforts were important. He felt that such a program could improve the skillsets of engineers and thereby improve their employment prospects. He also inspired the graduates with his eloquent address. 

At the conclusion of the speech, the Graduation ceremony commenced where every student was individually awarded a “Certificate of Excellence” for their commendable efforts to complete the four course levels and clear the graduation exam with distinction. Several individual students were also awarded for their outstanding performance in the respective subjects such as mechanics, electronics, algorithm and programming. 

B.Adwaith and Manoj Kumar with their respective trophies for the Best performance in Mechanical and Electronics

Later on, the graduates who had adorned the customary Graduation Suit and Graduate Cap were taken off to the photo session where they posed for the group photos. With the throwing of hats into the air, the event came to a close.

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KRG-IX: A few memories to share and a few memories to thank for. . . .

It’s been 3 days since KRG ended and our excitement is barely down. With the photos and videos just only arriving at our offices, it is time to reminisce and relive memories of the two days. For it not often that you attend events that put you in touch with the memories of your childhood. More importantly, this event was one that actually had children displaying their cool intellectual prowess.

The event was spectacular on many counts and for everyone who was there, it was an amazing experience.

It was a couple of days of absolute fun where everyone, be it the students of Kidobotikz or the staff, were all caught up in the euphoria surrounding the two day event. Every student who participated in the proceedings brought with him/her a unique flavour that made the whole event a joyous affair.

There were many positives from this edition of KRG. This was the first time when KRG was conducted on two days. After requests from many previous participants and parents to increase the number of events, the organizing committee of KRG turned this into a 2 day gala. This had a wonderful effect on all the participants. All participants could now participate in all events and did not have to miss out on participation due to overlapping events. This way, students also felt that they could spend their entire weekend on robotics instead of a single cramped day. The theme of this edition’s project display was another major hit. In order to show Kidobotikz’s commitment to nation objective of “Clean India” and to show support to the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s “Clean India” campaign, the theme of the project expo event for this edition of KRG was “Clean India”. Students were asked to develop concepts and projects that showcased the concepts for making India a cleaner country. Students obliged the call for such projects by developing wonderful concepts which had the clean india theme incorporated into them. 

The project expo was a major crowd puller with several schools bringing their students to view the display the projects. This showed to us that schools were opening up to the possibilities of incorporating practicals-based learning and robotics in their curriculum. Equally enchanting was the fact that droves of students from these schools made a beeline to our help desk to find out more about Kidobotikz and what we do. Many of these students displayed curiosity and wanted to get themselves some of this robotics knowledge. 

The future of education scenario in the country could’ve been glimpsed if one had set foot at KRG on the weekend. Such was technological empowerment caused by the knowledge of robotics on these young minds. And we at Kidobotikz are happy to have been a catalyzing factor towards this future.

With the event having now been successfully concluded, it is now time to look back on it and thank all those who made the event happen. Every parent, student and faculty who had taken part in this event should feel proud as without the support of each one of them, this event could not have been the grandiose success that it was. In particular, two teams needed to be credit with the highest honour for their relentless commitment in getting the robots and project. Back at Kidobotikz, the training team and the production team always supplement each other's efforts. For every project the students had to do, their components had to be sourced from the open market. Thanks to the production team and their shop, every young student’s vision for building a robot of their dream was made possible by sourcing components through an endless maze of logistics. Their efforts in these regard can never be fully appreciated because of the inherent complexities in any logistics system. But thanks to their relentless and dedicated efforts, every component in every project and robot worked flawlessly. 

We wish to bring more such fun in the winter edition of KRG to be held tentatively in December 2016.

Happy Roboting ! !

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Kidobotikz's Robopalooza: KRG Day 2

When can an event be called an extravaganza? Could it be when organizers spend months of planning, weeks of preparations and a fat wad of money to organize an event? Could it be on the basis of footfalls at an event? Not quite. An event can unequivocally declared an extravaganza when the crowd turns up in hordes and then refuses to leave. The crowd which falls in love with the atmosphere of the event is left wanting for more. This is the defining moment for any event when it no longer is an event but becomes a tradition, one that cannot afford to not happen regularly. At the end of the proceedings of the August Edition of KRG, it can be safely said that KRG is no longer just an event but a tradition.

The second and final day of KRG commenced with an intense state of euphoria with a swelling in participation since yesterday’s events. With the energy and excitement pouring in over from yesterday, the action commenced from where we left yesterday. The first event for today, which took place at arena 3, was Temple Run (Seniors) wherein the senior students of Kidobotikz took part in the android game-inspired event. The main focus of this event was on building and designing robots which were capable of pushing themselves through a path that was ridden with obstacles. The obstacles which ranged from an elevated ramp to a teeterboard was one of the tougher events that students take part in. Robots of various dimensions, which were custom designed to be able to tackle the unexpected obstacles on the pathway, elicited quite a loud cheer from the audience with both parents and students going gaga over the suspense built into the event. Not many robots were able to successfully complete the entire lap, thereby assuring that victory was hard-earned. 

Back in Arena 2, another interesting event was happening which was a crowd favourite. The junior and senior versions of the Balloon Burster was in the happening today and it turned out to be quite a fun event. “A last man standing”-kinda event, it involved robots which had balloons tethered to their rears while long pointed nails fixed to the front. Like a knight involved in jousting, each participant had to shield his own balloon from being pierced while trying to pierce the balloon of the opponent. This event, which had single elimination format,was a rather rapid one with many matches being played out in less than 60 seconds. The juniors event of this game was won by Shraddha while the seniors was won by Rohit Kumar. 

Interestingly, there was one event which had put everyone in a spot of bother. The line follower event which had circuitous black paths was so tough that not one participant could win the event. The final robot which took part in this event was the only one which was able to complete the lap. Not surprisingly, Vidyasagar who had designed this robot was declared the winner of this event. Impressively, Vidyasagar had also managed to bag two more events into his kitty. After winning 3 of the events- namely Line Follower, Temple Run seniors; Vidyasagar was declared the overall champion. 

The prize distribution ceremony which happened after the close of all the games was a solemn affair. Dr. Ravikumar, Director of Center for Entrepreneurship Development, Anna University, had graciously agreed to preside over the occasion as Chief Guest and give away the prizes. Dr. Ravikumar, who was acquainted with the our directors Pranavan and Sneha, had quite a few words of praise for both of them and the organization of Kidobotikz. He opined that the methodologies adopted by Kidobotikz to promote robotics based education for students had the potential to better the standards of education in our country and such efforts were well warranted.  PSBB KK Nagar won the overall shield.

Team Kidobotikz is happy to have conducted a two day KRG for the first time and is proud to declare that the two day event was a runaway success. We at Kidobotikz promise to bring back the next edition of KRG in a grander form and with much pomp. 

Happy Roboting ! ! 

Good Night ! !

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Kidobotikz's Robopalooza: KRG Day 1

For most of us who have a defined notion of the word “Fun”, today would’ve been an awakening experience! It was the first day of KRG and the day could not have turned out better! The day turned out to be absolutely fantabulous with lots of action. The ingredients for the usual though- Children, Robots and Competitions. For the audience though, the event was an absolute gala. With parents and children making to the event in droves, the event was an absolute crowd puller; in particular there were a number of enthusiastic drop ins from the student community of the College of Engineering, Guindy. With both parents and students having fun, they desired to catch some of the roboting action for themselves.

The first day of the ninth edition of KRG began with some exceptional jubilation thanks to the regular attendees of KRG. The event in itself commenced on time with the robots getting caged and vetted for registration at 8:30 AM. As the first event, Temple Run (Stock robots), commenced at little past 9 AM simultaneous preparations were underway for participation of the second event. The second event, Robo Sumo, which was one of the star attractions of the day began with much fanfare and saw a huge participation. When the morning session for this event concluded at around noon, it was a good 3 hours of high intensity roboting at the TAG Auditorium. 

Meanwhile, another important event was underway supplementing all the action at the TAG Auditorium. At the H.M Hall adjoining the TAG Auditorium, a project expo event was organized which encompassed a myriad of projects conceived and developed by the students of Kidobotikz. Each of these individual projects were brilliant in their own right with some truly eye catching concepts. In line with the PM Shri Narendra Modi’s “Swachh Bharat Abhiyan”, this edition of KRG’s project had a specific “Clean India” theme. All the projects on display were in line with this theme and students had painstakingly developed some interesting concepts for display to the outside world. Their efforts, however, were sufficiently rewarded with a lot of students turning up to grab a presentation of these projects. Henry Maudslay, the great inventor and after whom the H.M hall is named after, would be proud man to have witnessed such young innovative minds.

Schools from various parts of the city honoured Kidobotikz’s invitation and brought their students here to view the projects on display. Among these, the contingent from Jeppiaar School was by far the largest with close to 300 students attending KRG. 

After a brief recess, the afternoon events began with great fervour. The overcast skies and sumptuous luncheon seemed to have had no effect on the energies of the participants. If anything, the pitch of the event was higher than the morning. At around 2:30 PM, to the sounding of whistles, the robo races and robo sumos resumed with a great deal of joy from both the participants and the audience. When one of the two last standing robots were nudged out of the arena, the games for the day came to a close with the next event being for parents. This event which was conducted by Kidobotikz to entertain all the mothers of the kidobotikz student community, was much appreciated by all.

At around 6:30 PM the curtains were brought down on the first day of the Kidobotikz Robo Games 2016- August Edition. With still another day left in the event, the action continues tomorrow from where we left it today. 

Happy roboting! ! !

Good Night ! !

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Record frenzy at Kidobotikz

It’s the week of the most awaited event at Kidobotikz and the place is a beehive of activity. With less than 5 days to go for the world record event, the evenings have usually witnessed a mass influx of student coming here with their robots to get them ready and record-worthy. It’s 10 past 6 and I enter the training room only to find that the room is deserted with all the usual buzz absent. Turns out rain played spoilsport and took a toll on this evening’s attendance. Yet all this doesn’t seem to have deterred one particular kid. I strike up a conversation with him to find out his name and what he’s up to. He introduces himself as Koushik and says he’s from Jawahar Vidyalaya. He’s here to get his robot ready for the world record event. A class 8th grader is all he is and yet he has already covered a lot of ground in the area of robotics. He has completed his “Advanced”-level at Kidobotikz.    

Still tightening the screws on his ATV robot, he tells me that he has participated in a lot of national level robotic events and even won a couple of Robo races. I ask him what his desire lies and he says he wants to pursue Mechanical Engineering much to my surprise.  

Back in the lobby I meet two younger gentlemen who are awaiting to be picked by their parents after completing the assembly of their robot. Both of them are in class 7 and are here to take part in the World Record event too. Meet Shravan and Pranav Balaguru. Juniors to Koushik here at Kidobotikz, the two of them have assembled a wired ATV robot for the event. These are just 3 of the many hundreds of robotics aficionados that  throng the campus of kidobotikz for the world record event. Stay tuned for more such exciting stories.

Happy Roboting!

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Its CHENNAI setting a world record !! Cheer for these 101 kids !

Whenever the word Chennai is used in parlance, people usually talk about it’s Temples, Tiffins and Temperature. An often neglected “T” related with Chennai is Technology. Engineers from Chennai have often dazzled the global scenario with their innovation. Chennaiites are also known for their sense of belonging and their pride in rallying behind causes. It is a city that boasts of it’s pride in being sound in tech related matters.

We hear about rally of students, teachers, canines and felines. How about a rally of robots for a change? Yes, you heard it right. On the 3rd of July, Sunday, at 6 AM, 101 School students from Chennai are attempting a world record by rallying their ATV robots (101 on total) across the Besant nagar beach. These kids, probably aged 12-17, have spent their weekends over the past year learning the skill of building robots from scratch at Kidobotikz. If you are returning from your morning walk and are taken aback by a swarm of robots approaching you, you are witnessing history in the making.

Join us in cheering for this record attempt and be a witness to history!

Happy Roboting !    

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Kidobotikz-Summer Camp 2016

Summer may be a time to relax for those who are tired of studying, but learning is always beautiful. Kidobotikz linked up with The Hindu Young World again to inspire young minds to be part of an event that could nourish their future. The camp was filled with thousands of young keen energetic minds for the adventurous learning experience. The five-day camp, conducted across three different cities- Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad- primarily for children of age between 8 to 17, included activities for children in basic engineering, art, mathematics, language, team-building, and the like.

On the robotics session, the kids had a hands-on session for building a robot with different functionalities – making it trace a line, avoiding objects, preventing itself from falling off a table, and follow the light. The practical learning made the children easily understand advanced electrical, electronic and mechanical concepts. Apart from that, the kids also got the chance to see the working of All-Terrain Robot, Arm Robot, Walking Robot, etc.

The best part of this year’s summer session was – Kids helped other kids – the graduate students of Kidobotikz who are also of the same age group but more experienced in the tech skills were given the opportunity to learn more by helping other kids of their own age group to complete their practical sessions – this volunteering was definitely an inspiration to the 1000s of kids who got to see the technical knowledge of the bunch of graduates from Kidobotikz !

The kids, finally, did their own FIRST robot at the robotics session by Kidobotikz, which not only triggered their tech skills but also instilled their confidence, creativity, communication skills and teamwork. The summer was finally concluded with thousands of young minds walking out proudly with their own personal robot and a dream in their eyes to become a roboteer !

                                                   
                                     “Do something today that your future self will thank you for”

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KIdobotikz Robo-Game, April Edition 2016

 

When Chennai was warming up in the summer, Kidobotikz Robo- Games ended up adding more heat to it. 

Are you wondering if kids really understand robotics? Then you should visit KRG (a.k.a) Kidobotikz Robo-Games where you could find lots and lots of young, curious ad innovative minds march with their robots to be part of the tech society, and that’s where you could realize that the future of robotics is more grandeur in the young hands.

On 30^th of April, Kidobotikz organized its 8^th annual Robo games, with the most established, relevant range of games for school students. The event was filled with hundreds of keen young students. The event had seven enthralling games (i.e.) Project Expo, Autonomous & manually controlled Robo-Race, Autonomous & Manual Controlled Sumo Race. If you think you are hard to be surprised, then KRG is the place you will be looking for, where every corner of arena was filled with fun and surprises. 

Project Expo - KRG 16, April Edition

Techie out there, you should’ve peeked into the project expo, where participants showcased their ideas by building a prototype proving that technologies can build a better future making adults go speechless.
 

 Robo-Race - KRG 16, April Edition

 One could also hear noises a que that the robo-race had started. Where you could find the robots go wroom! Poof! Bam! Pow! Zap! on the track, because it was bumpy with the bridges, wedges, death wells, rotating platforms and many more surprise elements. The next stop was the Robo-Sumo. You could witness the robots fighting for its survival – two robots pushing each other; the one that stands alone won the match, which was being operated manually by the participants. The clash was wild but only inside the arena. 

Robo-Sumo - KRG 16, April Edition

KRG is not designed for winning or losing, it’s all about being part of a community where you could learn and improvise the tech-skills. To make the event more interesting, Kidobotikz surprised the participants with the “Royal Rumble” match. The one rule about the match was “There are no rules”. It was a last man (Oops, last robot) standing match, where all the robots joined the war on eliminating their opponents and it was top notch.  The winner of each event was awarded and other participants were recognized and appreciated for their effort. The overall champion was won by “Abhimanyu Sathish”. He accomplished first place in Robo-Race and second place in Robo- Sumo. 

OUR COMMUNITY

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