IIT Delhi’s technology innovation hub IHFC, ITU to organise Robotics for Good Youth competition in October

NEW DELHI: IHFC, the technology innovation hub of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) have entered into an agreement to organise Robotics for Good, a UN-based educational robotics championship, in October. IHFC has been appointed as the national organiser for the Robotics for Good Youth Challenge 2024-2025, a global initiative of the ITU, as part of AI for Good.

ITU is the UN’s specialised agency for information and communication technologies. The competition will be held for two age groups, junior for Classes 6 to 8 and senior for Classes 9 to 12. IHFC is the key enabler for this event and will organise the India Qualifying Tournament for the competition, which is to be held on October 17, 2024, at the International Exhibition Convention Centre, Pragati Maidan, in New Delhi. This is essentially a qualifying tournament leading to the Grand Finale in Geneva during the AI for Good Global Summit 2025.

It is being held for the first time in India and aims at targeting students to offer robotic solutions for disaster management. The challenge highlights robots that offer practical solutions to promote the UN's sustainable development goals (SDGs). Participants will have to design, build, and programme a robot that completes a mission based on one of the SDGs.

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The focus is on Robotics for Good, emphasising addressing natural disasters such as earthquakes, seismic risk prediction, and soil and subsurface studies. The primary objective is to enable swift intervention during disasters to effectively minimise their impact.

The collaboration between IHFC and ITU will provide children with an opportunity to get exposure to robotics while gaining the in-depth and latest knowledge in robotics brought to them by IHFC.