NEW DELHI, INDIA - Techtronics (India) Limited, an activity-based learning products and solution provider, organised the Third Indian Robot Olympiad (IRO) on Saturday Amity University, campus in Noida (Uttar Pradesh).

300 teams from over 30 different schools from North and Central India participated in the event in multiple categories like primary school (12-14 years), junior high (14-16 years), senior high (16-18 years) and demonstrated the capabilities of their robots, which was constructed using LEGO MINDSTORMS Education, a concept developed for school and after school settings. It consists of brick sets, programming tools and activity packs.

The South India chapter of IRO will be organised in Bangalore for the schools in the Southern and Western India at Indus International School on September 28. The winning teams in various categories at both the events will represent India in the World Robot Olympiad 2008 (WRO) in Japan from October 31 to November 2.

Sudhanshu Sharma, managing director, Techtronics (India) Ltd, said, "This competition has gained popularity over the last couple of years and has become quite a rage amongst both the school going children and their teachers since Robotics is extremely exciting and also helps in developing the children's skills".

"Students are well educated and informed about the latest technology and programming through these kinds of competitions", added Sharma.

"It is extremely encouraging to see that children from all across the country are taking up an active interest in robotics. We expect that majority of these students will be extremely motivated to take up pure sciences and engineering as their subject of choice for higher studies and contribute towards strengthening the knowledge capital that India is respected for," said Shabnam Sharma, director of Techtronics (India) Ltd.

A long time LEGO education enthusiast, Apurva Kalia said, "Robotics is an exciting field that integrates science, engineering, mechanics, electronics and programming".