This year’s e-Yantra Symposium achieves a seven-year track record of running a massive (MHRD-funded) National Robotics outreach program. On display are the finals of two of its major student-facing initiatives: the e-Yantra Robotics Competition (eYRC-2018) and e-Yantra Ideas Competition (eYIC-2019). The e-Yantra Symposium is an attempt to reach out to industry, where the team presented its model for academia-industry engagement using the 352 labs it has established. From these colleges, student teams along with their teacher mentors participated in e-Yantra Ideas Competition (eYIC-2019). This year, we received a large number of ideas and have shortlisted 64 ideas for Regional Finals held at Coimbatore, Pune, Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Vadodara and Noida - to demonstrate the project.

Amongst these shortlisted ideas, 21 idea proposals were selected for demonstration in the National Finals at IIT Bombay. This competition ensures that the labs established through the e-Yantra Lab Setup Initiative (eLSI) are used and innovative projects are executed using the robots and accessories in the labs.

Following the panel discussion were talks in an inspirational vein for the 250+ finalists and the nearly 60 teachers being hosted at IIT Bombay.

As a part of eYS-2019, stimulating talks and panel discussions were highlighted.

Highlights

• Key note on “Sanskar” of Innovation" -with Shri. Tapan Mishra
• Panel Discussion on: "Role of e-Yantra Labs in Industry/Academia interaction and Govt./Industry Support in Building the Innovation Pipeline" -with Smt. Jaya Goyal, Nilay, Romesh Kaul , Manoj Nambiar, Shri. Gurinder Singh
• "Innovation and Entrepreneurship" Workshop-  with Mr. Rohaan Goswami
• Discussion of Case studies on "eYIC market ready projects" - with Reva University, Vadodara Institute of Engineering, J D College of Engineering and Management, KJ Somaiya College of Engineering

The family of e-Yantra has grown to over 280 colleges. From these colleges, student teams along with their teacher mentors participated in e-Yantra Ideas Competition (eYIC-2017). This year, we received a large number of ideas and have shortlisted 42 ideas for Regional Finals held at Coimbatore, Ernakulum, Bangalore, Pune, Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Noida - to demonstrate the project.

Amongst these shortlisted ideas, 22 idea proposals were selected for demonstration in the National Finals at IIT Bombay. This competition ensures that the labs established through the e-Yantra Lab Setup Initiative (eLSI) are used and innovative projects are executed using the robots and accessories in the labs.

The e-Yantra Symposium (eYS-2018) scheduled on March 24, 2018. We had exciting sessions this year for the Symposium. It was a three days event along with the National Finals of e-Yantra Robotics competition (eYRC-2017) and e-Yantra Ideas Competition (eYIC-2018).

As a part of eYS-2018, stimulating talks by eminent speakers and panel discussions were highlighted.

As a part of eYS-2018, stimulating talks and panel discussions were highlighted.

Highlights

• Key note on "Academia/Industry connect: The Role of IP and Entrepreneurship"- with Prof. Ashok Misra
• Panel Discussion on: "How Best do we use e-Yantra Labs as a Bridge between Academia and Industry?"
• Talk on: "Entrepreneurship and Entrepreneurs"with Rashmi Bansal
• Talk on: "Marching to the Beat of Your Own Drum" with Prof. Dinesh Singh
• Talk on: "Little known facts about money" with P.V. Subramanyam
• Panel discussion led by industry leaders such as: Vallabh Bhanshali , Anil Lingayat , Prof. Dinesh Singh , Prof. Ashok Misra and Prof. SS Mantha on how this potent model may best be used for academia-industry engagement. With us were also Meeta Rajivlochan , Dr. Shivprasad Khened , Romesh Kaul , Mahesh Samat amongst a host of others.

The family of e-Yantra has grown to over 233 colleges. From these colleges, student teams along with their teacher mentors participated in e-Yantra Ideas Competition (eYIC-2017). This year, we received a large number of ideas and have shortlisted 48 ideas for Regional Finals held at Bangalore, Coimbatore, Delhi, Mumbai and Pune - to demonstrate the project. Amongst these shortlisted ideas, 16 idea proposals were selected for demonstration in the National Finals at symposium at IIT Bombay. This competition ensures that the labs established through the e-Yantra Lab Setup Initiative (eLSI) are used and innovative projects are executed using the robots and accessories in the labs.

As a part of eYS-2017, stimulating talks and panel discussions were highlighted.

Highlights

• Panel Discussion on: “Upgrading e-Yantra Labs: Evaluation of proposed initiatives”
• Key note on “India's Mangalyaan Mission – Case Study on ISRO Innovation”- with ​Somya Sarkar
• Panel Discussion on: "How to make e-Yantra relevant to "Make in India" and industry?”with Anand Deshpande, Ashank Desai, Prof. Dinesh Singh
• Talk on: “Indian Traditions of Excellence in Engineering Science” with Prof. K. Ramsubramanian, Session Chair: Prof. Dinesh Singh
• Discussion on: “How to use Project Based Learning in e-Yantra Labs?” with Prof. Dinesh Singh, Prof. Krithi Ramamritham, Representatives from eLSI colleges, Moderator: Prof. Kavi Arya

The family of e-Yantra has grown to over 153 colleges.From these colleges student teams along with their teacher mentors participated in e-Yantra Ideas Competition (eYIC-2016) and won exciting prizes and awards. 181 ideas were received out of which 44 were short-listed for implementation. Out of these 44, 11 viable ideas were selected for the e-Yantra exhibition. This competition ensures that the labs established through the e-Yantra Lab Setup Initiative (eLSI) are used and innovative projects are executed using the robots and accessories in the labs.

Also, teachers who completed TBT-2015 Challenge and eYRTC-2015 won exciting prizes and awards.

As a part of eYS-2016, interesting activities and talks were conducted which are highlighted below:

Highlights

• Series of talks on “Searching for a Research Topic: It can be fun”- with ​ ​ Prof. Krithi Ramamritham
• Keynote on : “ISRO Innovation and Building Eco­systems” with Shri Tapan Misra
• Talk on “How do we ‘Make in India’ for India's defence requirements? " with Gen. AV Subramanian
• Panel Discussion on : "How might we evolve e­Yantra labs into Innovation Hubs?”with Prof. S.S.Mantha, Ajay Nanavati, Gen A.V. Subramanian
• Series of talks on “How to Get Research out of the Lab into the Real World?” with ​Prof. V. Ramgopal Rao
• Panel Discussion on : “How to use e­Yantra Labs in Hands­on Learning” with regional eLSI colleges

In eYS-2014, 16 Mumbai University colleges along with 35 colleges from different regions of the country participated and 11 student projects in the field of Embedded systems and Robotics were exhibited.

Since then the e-Yantra family has grown to over 100 colleges. To provide a fair opportunity to all these colleges to exhibit their projects during eYS-2015, e-Yantra Ideas Competition (eYIC-2015) was launched. The student teams along with their teacher mentors participated for selection in eYS-2015 and won exciting prizes and awards. 104 ideas were received out of which 30 were short-listed for implementation. Out of these 30, 11 viable ideas were selected for the e-Yantra exhibition.

This competition ensures that the labs established through the e-Yantra Lab Setup Initiative (eLSI) are used and innovative projects are executed using the robots and accessories in the labs.

In eYS-2014, several interesting student projects from 16 Mumbai colleges, where Robotics labs have been established under the e-yantra project were showcased. Some of them are: Potholes & pitfalls spotter, Automated Loading Based System, Bomb Diffuser Robot, Garbage Separator Robot with smart alert system and Soldier Assistance Robot, etc.

The e-Yantra Robotics Teachers Competition, eYRTC was also organized for the first time on the 10^th & 11^th of April 2014. A total of 35 teacher teams had participated in the competition out of which 11 teams made to the final rounds. The theme for the competition was 'Mine Sweeper'.