MIT students shine in University Rover Challenge 2022 in Utah
Manipal July 13, 2022: Team Mars Rover Manipal – the students’ team from the Manipal Institute of Technology excelled at the University Rover Challenge 2022 held at the Mars Desert Research Station, Hanksville, Utah, USA.
The event held from June 1 to 4, was attended by 36 teams from various parts of the world.
The University Rover Challenge is a premier robotics competition organized annually by ‘The Mars Society’ during summer at the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) in Utah. The challenge is to build a next-generation Mars Rover capable of working alongside humans in future Martian colonies. Each edition (of the competition) has multiple problem statements designed to capture the complex system design requirements in such environments.
Mars Rover Manipal achieved an overall ranking of 21 in the competition and also won the prestigious “John Barainca Award” for being the Best Science team.
Gen (Dr)MD Venkatesh, Vice-Chancellor, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) lauded the achievement of Team Mars Rover Manipal.
“They have made us proud. We are delighted with its performance and are sure the students will achieve greater heights in the future,” he said.
(Dr.) Anil Rana, Director, Manipal Institute of Technology, MAHE, said that the Team Mars Rover Manipal has always strived and excelled in designing and building the next generation of rovers for exploration of extraterrestrial environments and interplanetary missions.
“Their participation and performance will inspire other students to push themselves to inculcate practical and technical skills along with theoretical knowledge. We are extremely happy at their achievement, as they showed grit and determination despite the several challenges posed by the pandemic and made their institute proud,” he said.
