Unlike other kids his age, for 12-year-old Jay Gadre, Lego bricks were not just another toy. His first Lego kit, he recollects, got him hooked on to something he hopes to pursue as a career, robotics.

At Tricks 2008, a city-wide robotics competition conducted by The Robotics Institutes (TRI), this Jamnabai Narsee student battled it out with over 150 students from 36 schools in Mumbai at the Indian Institute of technology campus at Powai on Sunday. TRI is a venture by a group of Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB) alumni.

Gadre, the youngest of all the participants, won the competition meant for 14-18 year olds, along with his partner and classmate Soham Bhatnagar.

The competition was held to test the ‘robotic skills’ of the students through autonomous and on-the-spot competitions. “The participants were given problem statements for building autonomous robots, capable of identifying victims whilst navigating over a line on the floor and also in the absence of the line. The robot should also be able to navigate through debris and climb a ramp,” explained Varun Jain, media coordinator of TRI.

In order to acquaint students with the basics of robotics before the competition, TRI conducted free robotic workshops called Fundae sessions in various places in Mumbai in September and October which saw participation of over 500 students from around 75 schools.

Operating under the brand name of ThinkLABS and robo.in, Powai-based TRI has been in the business of robotics education for over two-and-a-half years. TRI intends to work closely with school systems to reach students by means of interactive communication channels and to work with teachers and students on robotic research, added Jain. ThinkLABS is one of the companies incubated by IIT Bombay’s Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE).

Gagan Goyal, director of TRI, said, “TRI believes that an early association with robotics will help forge a lifelong attachment to science and technology and this is the goal that TRICKS aims to achieve by making young minds to join the league which will lead the country towards a technical revolution.”

Another participant, Jehaan Nicholson, 14, of Ashok Academy, Andheri, who finished his task in an impressive three minutes, said: “The workshops helped me immensely. I had seen similar competitions at Techfest (IIT’s science and technology festival) and seen similar competitions. I would like to take up engineering and specialise in robotics.”