MARGAO: Adding to the pride of Goa, Anam Raza, a Grade 8 student of Podar International School, secured the second position nationally in the prestigious e-Yantra competition organised by IIT Bombay — an outstanding achievement given that she competed against students up to four years her senior.
Designed and hosted by IIT Bombay, e-Yantra is a seven-month-long challenge that builds and assesses programming and robotics skills among students of Grades 7 to 12 from across India and neighbouring countries. Over the course of the competition, participants were given seven challenges, one at a time, in increasing order of difficulty, which they had to solve using logic, scientific knowledge and coding skills.
If you enjoyed reading this article, you can help support our journalism by adding OHeraldo as a preferred source.
The competition saw 140 students from 70 schools participate. After their performance was assessed across all seven challenges, the IIT Bombay team selected 13 finalists for the concluding round. In the final round, each finalist was required to demonstrate a working simulation of their solution to the seventh and most difficult challenge before a panel of IIT Bombay professors. The panel also interviewed each finalist to evaluate technical ability and depth of STEM knowledge.
Drawing on this rigorous process — seven challenges over seven months, followed by a live demonstration and interview — the judges selected the top five students. Anam stood second, with the first position going to a Grade 10 student. Notably, students from Grades 8 to 12 participated in the competition, making Anam one of the youngest among the top performers.
This is the latest in a series of distinctions Anam has earned in robotics and programming. Her previous accomplishments include The Dean’s Award at the prestigious FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC), first place internationally in a block-coding competition organised by Discovery Edutech, and a top 10 international ranking in the Scratch Olympiad, among others.
Anam is a member of Team TechInfinity, a team of Goan students formed by Saraswat Vidyalaya. The team was selected to compete in a national-level robotics competition. The team’s performance could pave the way for participation in the robotics Olympiad organised by the FIRST Global Challenge (FGC), to be held in Seoul, South Korea, later this year.
