NUST holds annual national engineering robotics contest

Islamabad : National University of Sciences & Technology (NUST), STEM Careers Programme HEC, and National Centre of Robotics & Automation (NCRA) organised the 18th annual National Engineering Robotics Contest NERC 2022 at NUST College of Electrical & Mechanical Engineering (CEME) Rawalpindi.

The last two decades have seen tremendous activity in the field of Robotics. Robot clubs have sprung up everywhere in the world and thousands of web pages are devoted to robots. A large number of robotic contests are held annually throughout the world. NERC is the pioneering and biggest Robotics contest in Pakistan, which attracts participants from all over the country.

Asim Shahryar Husain, CEO of National Technology Fund (Ignite) graced the occasion as chief guest. In his address, he complimented the efforts of NUST CEME to organise NERC – a platform that provides students with an opportunity to get complete Engineering experience. Earlier, Brig Asim Bashir, Commandant CEME highlighted how the number of participants had grown and standard of the competition risen over the years. He said “We believe that healthy competitions like NERC are beacons of a progressive attitude. In a knowledge-based economy, creativity and innovation have become essential weapons in the intellectual armoury of students.” He emphasised that co-curricular activities play an instrumental role in building a sound personality and a successful human being.

Dr Amir Hamza, Head of Mechatronics Engineering department, informed the audience that over 150 teams from different universities, colleges and institutes from all over Pakistan participated in the competition. He said that such contests not only increase awareness regarding Robotics and Mechatronics but also show that we as a nation are progressing in these technologically advanced fields. Towards the end, the chief guest gave away shields and cash prizes to best performing teams. Shield with a cash prize of Rs100,000 was awarded to the winning team Tuk Tuk from CEME. Afterwards, awards were given to 3rd Robotics & Startup Challenge winners.