Creative minds showcase engineering skills at graVITAs’ 26 at VIT

The three-day festival will offer a total of 227 events, which are expected to be attended by more than 40,000 students. | Photo credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Students from various engineering streams such as mechanical engineering, electronics and electrical engineering and communication showcased their skills on the second day of the graVITAs’26 technology festival organized by VIT here on Saturday.

Events like robo wars, drone races, toycathon revolving around science toy making, big band theory and map hunting were the main events on the second day of the festival as competing students checked last minute details on their innovative equipment like robo cars.

“Classroom learning helps in sharing ideas with team members while developing robots for competitions. Inputs from senior participants were also valuable during such a festival,” said V. Payal, a student.

The winning robot in the robowar competition needed aggression, control and was based on the extent of damage caused to competing robots.

The robots, which were divided into two categories (15 kg and 60 kg) based on the robot’s weight, were remotely controlled by a team outside the ring. A damaged robot in the ring should be repaired within 20 minutes to participate again, but cannot be replaced with a new robot.

Drones were another attraction at the fest. Participating teams should make their drones overcome a series of obstacles, such as arched structures and poles, over a distance of approximately 200 meters. Drones should not hit these obstacles. The winners were the drones that took the shortest time to reach their destination. The key to success in the drone competition has been to have small, weightless drones that easily navigate obstacles.

The competition also provided a platform for students to run their own startups. Seasoned investors in the startup industry, termed as capital hunting, have been roped in to guide students on the nuances of running successful startups.

The three-day festival will feature a total of 227 events, with more than 40,000 students expected. Of these, 76 events were already held before the three-day event. The total prize pool was estimated to be around ₹25 million in cash and ₹1.5 million in kind prizes.

At the valedictory on September 20, Atul Sahgal, senior vice president and global head of talent acquisition at Cognizant, will be the chief guest. Hemant Sahal, VIT alumnus and Founder-CEO of Digii will be the Guest of Honour.

Published – 19 Sep 2026 21:40 IST