Sikkim girls to represent India in Robotex Asia, International

Gangtok: Students of Paljor Namgyal Girls Senior Secondary School (PNGSSS) are all set to represent the country in Robotex Asia in China and Robotex International in Estonia later this year.

In the recently held Robotex nationals in Ahmedabad, two teams from the school had made it to the finals in ‘Lego Line Follower’ and ‘Open Line Follower’ events. The Lego Line Follower team comprising Bath Sheba Lepcha, Prerna Pradhan and Sristika Sharma (all from Class XII, Science) bagged the first position in their category. They are now proudly representing the country in Robotex Asia to be held from August 16 to 19 in Shanghai, China.

Meanwhile, the members of the winning team along with Ivan D Lepcha, coach-cum-teacher, PNGSSS, met minister of state for HRD Kunga Nima Lepcha, who expressed his happiness over the news and blessed the children with a motivational conversation.

The students also expressed their happiness to represent the country. “We are really excited and proud of the competition. For sure, it is going to be tough as we are going to face Asia’s finest robots but we will definitely give our best and make our country proud,” they said.

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They further explained how a slightest mistake or glitch can go against them during the competition. “In our national competition, we realised that we lack in speed. So this time we have worked extra hard in improving the speed of our robot. We have given 5-6 months in making and programming our robot and we are hopeful that our hard work pays off,” added the girls.

The students also thanked their principal Jem Pandi Targain and their coach Ivan for their success.

Meanwhile, coach Ivan D Lepcha said how the school has been participating and bagging titles since the establishment of the Atal Tinkering Lab (ATL).

“We are at present the most talked ATL in the country. Our defeat last year at the national-level made us learn and helped us improve a lot this year. Therefore, we are now successful in representing our country. This is not just good news for us but for the entire student fraternity. We have been improvising our robot and now we are all set for the competition,” he said.

Talking about the challenges, Ivan said that the team members still lack behind in terms of cutting-edge level of expertise in robotics and artificial intelligence. “Hence, it is going to be hard. However, we will come back with experience and knowledge gained during the competition. We will impart and share the knowledge with the students of our school and also the interested ones from other schools. We want to work towards creating awareness in terms of artificial intelligence in the state and come up with unique innovation in the future,” he added.