The Mumbai robotics team was spearheaded to awards by 15 year old Rahesh
A group of seven Indian students has bagged two awards at the FIRST Global robotics Olympiad in the US where 157 countries participated.
The students, who hail from Mumbai, won gold for the Zhang Heng Engineering Design Award and bronze for the Global Challenge Match at the international robotics challenge organised by FIRST Global in Washington, according to a statement.
The Indian team was led by 15-year-old Rahesh, the youngest member of the group. Others were the team spokesperson Aadiv Shah, alliance strategist Harsh Bhatt, alliance analyst Vatsin, robot tactician Adhyyan, robot controller Tejas, and the robot driver, Raghav.
"Absolutely thrilled that we were able to live up to our promise... We had a lot of fun at the FIRST Global Challenge 2017," the group said in its Facebook page.
The Mumbai team won bronze for the Global Competition Match, while they secured gold for the design compe
Mexico City will host the competition next year.
The three-day event capped weeks of tense moments for the all-girl team from Afghanistan, whose visas were denied twice by the State department. However due to a last-minute intervention by President Donald Trump, they were able to arrive over the weekend to participate in the competition.
The Afghan team won the Rajaa Cherkaoui El Moursli award for courageous achievement. First Daughter Ivanka Trump met them at the competition venue in the morning.
"We are not terrorists. We are simple people with ideas. We need a chance to make our world better. This is our chance," Alireza Mehraban, an Afghan software engineer who is the team's mentor, was quoted as saying by the New York Times.