Team India stupendous success at the FIRST Global Challenge 2024

The FIRST Global Challenge (FGC) is an annual international robotics competition aimed at inspiring young people to apply STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) skills to solve pressing global challenges. With participants from over 193 nations, the event promotes collaboration, innovation, and the development of technological solutions to real-world problems. The 2024 edition, held from September 26-29 in Athens, focused on the theme “Feeding the Future,” where teams designed robots to address global food security issues.

Team India, consisting of Aarav Shah, Aarav Gupta, Arjun Kejriwal, Jayanee Shah, Aditi Shah, Arjun Kejriwal, Aryaman Kejriwal, Mann Parekh, Meher Choudhary, Neel Mistry from Mumbai and Sai Pranav Gandhi from Goa as team members, alongside mentors Mr. Nilesh Shah and Mr. Saieesh Gandhi, delivered an outstanding performance. Aadiv Shah who participated in the inaugural season of the FIRST Global Championship in 2017 at Washington DC, returned to mentor Team India by helping the team make the Cascade Elevator consistently perform and raise the morale of the team high with each of their matches. His presence with the team infused new energy and enthusiasm and had a positive impact on the team performance. Parul Shah mentored the team for all their outreach activities guiding the team to go beyond robotics and imbibe life skills. She was the go to person for the team to prepare for all the pit interviews

Team India along with the alliance teams secured an impressive 4th position overall and also won the Zhang Heng Engineering Design Award (Bronze).

The opening ceremony was held On September 26th, teams from over 190 countries gathered at the Panathenaic Stadium for an unforgettable evening. The Panathenaic Stadium is the place where the stadium was built for the first of the modern Olympic Games in 1896 in Athens, Greece.  The Parade of Nations, followed by an outstanding performance by the Black Eyed Peas marked the beginning of this incredible journey. Team India dressed in traditional outfits, offered its traditional welcome with a Namaste to the crowd. 

The Team India booth was well decorated with traditional Indian garlands and offered all the journey of the team with posters, banners and pamphlets. The booth was well visited by the dignitaries. Mr Dean Kamen the founder of FIRST Global visited the stall with Peter H. Diamandis, founder of X prize and suggested that India should host the future edition of FGC. The other dignitaries that visited the booth were the top officials of title sponsor LAM research, Bezos earth fund etc.

Robot Matches

The theme of the competition was “Feeding the Future”.  The teams manoeuvre their robot in a simulated world that emphasizes the intricate and interdependent relationship between water, energy, and food systems, while carefully managing and balancing global resources to support a sustainable food system.

In the semifinals Team India performed exceedingly with the alliance teams of Greece, Columbia and Latvia managed to score 594 points in four matches and was ranked 4th amongst 192 countries Globally. 

Robot Design

The robot design had functional modules 

• Chassis: The structural foundation of the robot, also ensuring robot movement on the Playfield and on the Ramp.
• Cascade Elevator: Mechanism to move game elements (Energy and Water) vertically.
• Game Element Intake: System used to take in game elements (Food).
• Game Element Delivery: Mechanism for dispensing game elements into the Nexus Goals

The robot was coloured orange consistent to the theme of Team India and was the centrepiece of attraction as all enquired about how the robot was coloured orange. The process of colouring employed was an Industrial process called anodizing in which parts are dipped in chemical solution and a voltage is applied. 

For all these innovations in the robot, Team India was honoured with the Zhang Heng Engineering Design Award (Bronze). This prestigious award recognizes teams that demonstrate exceptional engineering excellence, creativity, and innovative problem-solving in their robot design.

Outreach

Team India’s A TEAM OF HEROES AND SHEROES with the motto – WINNING HEARTS WITH WINNING EFFORTS, success at FGC 2024 highlights their dedication, ingenuity, and teamwork throughout the competition. Beyond the technical accomplishments, they engaged with other international teams, fostering a spirit of global cooperation. Their participation underscored India’s growing leadership in STEM education and demonstrated how robotics can play a critical role in addressing real-world issues.

As part of pre competition outreach Team India advocated to declare Robotics as sport with the Govt of Goa and submitted petitions to Hon’ble Chief Minister of Goa Dr Pramod Sawant, Director of Sports Shri Arvind Khutkar and Director of Education, Shri Shailesh Jingade. 

Sponsors:

The participation of Team India entails expenses and sponsors helped tide over this challenge. The sponsors were Everest Masala, JKLS Information technology and consulting, Roundabout Tour planner, Ketto crowdfunding, Innoven capital etc

About FIRST Global Challenge:

The FIRST Global Challenge is an annual international robotics competition that brings together youth from around the world to tackle pressing global issues. Founded by Dean Kamen, FGC aims to inspire students to pursue careers in STEM fields and become agents of change in their communities.

About Team India:

Team India is a group of talented students selected from across the country to represent India at the FIRST Global Challenge. The team is mentored by Mr. Nilesh Shah and Mr. Saieesh Gandhi. In 2023, a team from Goa had represented India at the FGC and had won four awards.