IESL organises Robot Games 2008

The Young Members' Section (YMS) of the Institution of Engineering, Sri Lanka (IESL) organised the first ever national level Robot competition in Sri Lanka with a view to open new avenues for the technology savvy young generation.

This is another step in achieving IESL's quest to promote engineering education in the country and enhance the quality of the profession.

The competition concluded recently where a combined team consisting of students of the University of Moratuwa and IESL Engineering course emerged as winners. A team from the Open University of Sri Lanka got the second place while the third place went to a team from the University of Ruhuna.

The Chairman of the YMS, Eng. Upul Angammana says that the main objective of this novel competition was to provide a platform for the engineering students in the country to apply knowledge gained in classrooms to real life situations and recreation purposes. Eng. Angammana added that the competition was specifically designed enabling the students to put their knowledge and understanding of manufacturing processes, controls, robotics and other technologies, into practice.

Robot Competition, which was open for students of higher education institutions, drew overwhelming response from all universities and other institutions engaged in providing technological education.

Fourteen teams were selected to take part in the final competition after several awareness and technical workshops with all the applicants.

According to Eng. Angammana, the competitors were given the task of designing and creating an autonomous robot that would travel along a given track within the shortest possible time.

The originality of the creation was another major criterion set down for the competing teams.