SLIIT ‘Robofest 2018’ challenge combines excitement of sport with science and technology

Combining the excitement of sports with science and technology, SLIIT’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering concluded another successful edition of its much-awaited annual robotic competition ‘Robofest’ recently.

This year’s ‘Robofest 2018’, held for the ninth consecutive time, took place from 6-7 September at SLIIT’s Main Auditorium. 

SLIIT Chairman Prof. Lakshman Ratnayake and Faculty of Engineering Dean Prof. Saman Thilakasiri were Guests of Honour at the opening ceremony. The competition’s main sponsor MAS Holdings, Deans of other faculties, professors, heads of departments, students and well-wishers were also present.

‘Robofest 2018’ featured more than 500 students, and 171 teams and was immensely successful in creating a platform for budding engineers to showcase their talents and interact with the industry to receive future support. 

Through ‘Robofest 2018’ we aim to inspire students to pursue careers in engineering, science, technology and math through participation in a sports-like science and engineering-based robotics competition. Commenting on the event, Prof. Thilakasiri said: “We are extremely pleased to have hosted this popular annual event once again. ‘Robofest 2018’ is a valuable experience to prepare our youth for 21st century careers. While bringing awareness to technology careers in an inspirational and exciting format it also mentors students in terms of academic skills, technical literacy, and job skills such as teamwork, leadership and business strategy,” 

Begun in 2010, through collaboration between students and staff, ‘Robofest’ engages youth to develop their skills in the technologies of the future. 

As in the previous editions, the competition was held under three categories; Open, University and School. Judging for the University and School teams were based on two rounds while the Open category was based on only one round.

“We were pleased to host our annual ‘Robofest’ competition which enables students to become future leaders and innovator. Continuously increasing the standards of the challenges, ‘Robofest 2018’ reached the international level by introducing the Micromouse Challenge for the first time in a robotic competition in Sri Lanka under the university category. Through this, students are encouraged to learn advance techniques and algorithms in machine learning and autonomous navigation. Extending this to the school category, the level was increased to levels that were there in the university category in early days,” said Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Head Dr. Nimsiri Abhayasinghe.

The judging panel included representatives from the sponsors and university lecturers who reviewed the performance and design specifications of the built robots. Competitors were allocated marks according to the given rubrics and individual lap times were recorded. 

For the School category, participants were called upon to build robots that can follow lines, resolve a line maze, color identification, payload carrying and unloading. In the University category, participants were required to undertake the Micromouse challenge to focus into international arena, while in the Open category, participants designed an Autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) that can travel a given path.

Prior to the competition, workshops were conducted for school students at chosen locations countrywide helping them gain exposure in robotics and technology. The main objective of these workshops were to enrich Sri Lanka’s future generations with knowledge and skills in robotics and automation. 

The fruitfulness of the exercise was evidenced by the impressive participation of 130 school teams in the competition with many teams successfully completing the task, despite such a challenge being introduced in the school category for the first time.