Codeavour 5.0 is an annual Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM) competition that encourages young minds to explore and innovate within the fields of science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics. With a focus on coding, the competition challenges students to think creatively and solve problems, aligning with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Two Goan teams achieved success at the national level of Codeavour 5.0 competition that was held at Alpine Convent School, Gurgaon, recently. Saraswat Education Society is the regional partner for the competition and the Goa regional event, hosted by Saraswat Vidyalaya, witnessed enthusiastic participation from 34 teams coming from schools across Goa with students from Class 2 to 9. From these, 23 teams (7 from Track 1 and 16 from Track 2) were chosen to represent Goa at the national level.
This year's competition, divided into two tracks focusing on innovation and entrepreneurship and a challenging robot game, attracted over 100 teams from across India where participants showcased their talents in areas requiring critical thinking, coding, and machine learning.
In Track 2, there was an option of autonomous mode (where the robot completes all or some of the tasks) along with manual mode (where a team member drives the robot remotely and manually to complete the tasks). The participants and mentors of the winning team, by their prior experience, knew that autonomous mode may not work as expected under some conditions and thus, practised hard to manually control the robot as well. For autonomous, instead of coding for all tasks, the team coded only limited tasks that they could verify would work in all conditions, every time. This helped them score at the event.
The team from Saraswat Vidyalaya, Mapusa comprises of Vedang Anay Kamat, a Class 3 student who achieved an impressive second rank at the national level. The team from The Progress High School, Panjim comprising Usha Kumawat, Nitin Yadav, and Yuvraj Dhabolkar, all Class 9 students, secured the third rank nationally. These teams were mentored by Maya Kamat (computer teacher from The Progress High School) and Sachita Nagvekar (computer teacher from Saraswat Vidyalaya).
The two teams have been selected to progress to the Codeavour 5.0 International competition, to be held in Dubai on May 4 and 5. The success of these young talents not only highlights the importance of STEAM education but also showcases the potential of Goan students on national and international platforms irrespective of their background and gender.