Mumbai: The Nirma Institute of Technology (NIT) has been selected as one of the three colleges in the nation to participate in the prestigious robotics contest of the Asia-Pacific region ABU Robocon 2002, the finals of which will be held in Tokyo from 28 to 31 August 2002.

Under a common set of rules, the best brains from 21 colleges and universities of 20 Asia-Pacific countries will participate in the open competition on the basis of robotic technology and artificial intelligence on a theme game named Reach the top of Mount Fuji with the help of manual and automatic robots.

To participate in the preliminary round of the international contest, a team of four final year students of NIT Savan Chhaniyara, Chintan Shah, Purvag Nanavati (BE (mechanical) and Jay Thakore (BE [IC]) led by Professor B B Kadam of the electrical engineering department of NIT are leaving for IIT-Kanpur on 16 July 2002. Based on their national (preliminary) performance on 21 July, one of these, or possibly a composite Indian team from among three colleges, would be chosen to represent India in the final competition in Tokyo.

Of the three institutes in the country, besides VESIT, Mumbai, and IIT-Kanpur (the nodal centre for the contest), the NIT team was identified on the basis of inputs received from a number of contests held in the country within the last year. In the case of NIT their Unnati Yantra The Stair Climber project, prepared and presented by Chhaniyara, Shah and Nanavati impressed the committee, during Techkriti-2002, the mechanical students annual national fair in February 2002.

In March 2002 after a very tough five-hour-long interview and presentation by the Team NIT at IIT Kanpur, against a jury of the IITK director, head of robotics departments senior research engineers and other senior professors, the final selection took place.

The team, with technical assistance of Parag Taktawala and helped by Dharmendra Chhatralia, came up with a promising design for the final theme project on the basis of a smart combination of technology and strategy in the sharp contrast of time (three minutes), weight (total of 40 kgs only) and space constraints.

Abiding by the rules of the game, the team has arrived at a design mechanism of four automatic robots and one manual robot with a strategy that increases the possibility of getting more points in a game that needs to be finished in three minutes, to achieve the target.

To take care of the weight constraints, all the components have been made of polypropylene and aluminum base avoiding the clutter in design and further reducing the overall weight. Lightweight, high-powered Swiss-made Maxon motors (15) have been used. To take care of the space, the wheels of the robots have been specially designed for the typical vinyl flooring being used in the contest.

The project funded in India by the ministry of human resource development is for the first time set up by the Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union to popularise robotics among the youth of the Asia-Pacific region. The contest has gained a huge base of popularity by now in all the participating countries.

Countries like Thailand, China, Indonesia and Vietnam have got widely publicised, with tickets sold to the general public and much song and dance preceding the show. In India DD1 being the ABU broadcast member country, shall telecast the national and the finals of the game live on 21 July and 31 August 2002.

NIT is emerging as one of the premium technology institutes in the nation. The institute has undergone for accreditation of its courses and its electrical course has acquired credit A and the other two courses of mechanical and chemical engineering have acquired the credit B from the National Accreditation Board.

Nirma, a Rs 2,428-crore company, offering employment to over 15,000 people, was established in 1969. Today, 33 years later, Nirma is a household name. It is a brand with a leadership presence in detergents, soaps and personal care products.

Nirma is a vibrant, proactive and widely admired ethical corporate citizen. To fulfil its role as a responsible corporate citizen of the society and environment, Nirma has undertaken a host of activities in the educational and social development areas and have also founded institutions like Nirma Institute of Management, NIT and Nirma Institute of Diploma Studies.