3 from Odisha part of team to win NASA award

BHUBANESWAR: Three from Odisha were among a six-member student team to have clinched the social media award at NASA's Human Exploration Rover Challenge 2023 in the US. The children are aged between 14 and 18 years.
NASA has announced the awards in as many as 14 categories. NASA gives away the social media award to teams for having the most active and creative social media presence throughout the project year. Through the platforms they see how the team goes through testing, modelling and engineering of various designs.
The students were mentored by Odisha-based Young Tinker Educational Foundation. Besides the three students from Odisha - Basudeba Bhoi (14) from Cuttack and Akankshya Dash (17) and Om Padhi (16) from Bhubaneswar-based Adruta Children Home - Sai Akshara Vemuri (17) and Akarsh Chittineni (14) are from Vijayawada while Siddhanth Ghosh (18) is from Mumbai.
More than 500 students from around the world had participated in the contest. The teams were tasked to design a rover that was able to effectively navigate the challenging terrain and obstacles as part of the competition.
"This is a moment of pride for all of us. Our month-long hard work and dedication has finally yielded result. Getting an award among so many students and at such a prestigious platform is indeed a feat to cherish," said Akankshya, one of the members.
Akashara said it was a great learning experience for them in the US. "We got to meet so many people, scientists and engineers. We also explored various technologies in NASA during our time at Alabama," Akashara said.
Anil Pradhan, the mentor from Young Tinker Educational Foundation, Bhubaneswar, said that such feats will encourage the students to focus on a career in STEM education. "I am very much proud of my team which has shown utmost dedication," Anil said.