Nexus @ IITB
On Saturday, 11th October, Techfest held its flagship robotics events, Nexus, in IIT Bombay. This event was organised by the Techfest team in Mumbai after its completion in Indore and Hyderabad. This year’s Nexus saw the first national solar robotics challenge (Photoroller) in which a robot had to be designed which competes in a one metre race with the only source of energy as two 500W halogen lamps. This problem statement was chosen because solar robotics competitions are common in other countries and also to eradicate the myth that solar robots are difficult to make.
There were two arenas set up at the LT (instead of one, as originally planned) due to the overwhelming response in terms of number of participants. Each team was allowed two runs. There was also a practice arena set up in MB-1.
The event, which started at 8:30 AM, was dull initially with poor bots which could not even start or stopped halfway. But things accelerated with a team clocking a time of 2.66 seconds, then came 2.65 sec, 2.40 seconds and, just when you thought it could not get better, Round 2 started, where the team which initially took 2.66 seconds timed 1.78 seconds. The team from IIT Bombay, comprising Manoj (3rd year), Shashwat (2nd year) and Anish (2nd year), did not make its first run but clocked a mere 1.37 seconds in the second run. This team won the first prize. The third prize also went to a team from IITB, whose time was 1.71 seconds. The competition ended at around 3:30 PM.
The Bombay Nexus was undoubtedly the most successful till now and the Techfest team is now looking forward to the Patiala Nexus as well as the I-Nexus, which will reach out to three countries – Sri Lanka, Denmark and the UAE.