Two teenagers from GB Nagar among 13 chosen for NASA exploration contest

Seven Indian student teams are participating in HERC this year. Utkarsh and Om have been selected to join one of those teams, called “Team Kaizel”

Two students from Noida and Greater Noida are among a team of 13 students from across India who will take part in NASA’s Human Exploration Rover Challenge (HERC) 2024. The two are Utkarsh, 15, who goes by his first name and studies in VRSB Inter College in Greater Noida, and Om Kumar, 16, who studies in Class 11 at Bhaurav Devras Saraswati Vidya Mandir School in Noida’s Sector 12.

The two were selected for Team Kaizel during a science exhibition for students aged 14 to 19 at GL Bajaj Institute of Technology and Management in Greater Noida on January 19, in which over 50 schools from across Gautam Budh Nagar participated. (HT Photo)

HERC is an annual engineering design competition of the US space agency NASA, where students from across the United States and the world build human-powered rovers capable of traversing challenging terrains and completing mission-focused tasks. The competition will be held on April 19 and 20 at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, US.

Seven Indian student teams are participating in HERC this year. Utkarsh and Om have been selected to join one of those teams, called “Team Kaizel”. Each team can take as many students as it wants.

Utkarsh and Om come from humble backgrounds. Utkarsh’s father used to be a farmer but has been bedridden for the past eight years due to a brain haemorrhage, so the 15-year-old helps his 80-year-old grandfather in the fields to earn a living for their family of five. Om’s mother works in a factory in Noida, while his father worked as an e-rickshaw puller until he lost his livelihood due to a fracture last year.

The two were selected for Team Kaizel during a science exhibition for students aged 14 to 19 at GL Bajaj Institute of Technology and Management in Greater Noida on January 19, in which over 50 schools from across Gautam Budh Nagar participated.

“I learned about the exhibition just two days before it was scheduled to be held. My teachers told me that the selected science model will get an opportunity to join ‘Team Kaizel’ which will go to NASA. Though I just had two days to prepare, with the help of my twin sister Nikita, I was able to make a model for an electric vehicle charger in just two days,” said Utkarsh, who is appearing for class 10 board exams this year.

“When I entered the exhibition, I was intimidated because of the sophisticated models whereas mine was made within ₹150. However, when my model was selected, I learnt a lesson that it is the talent that counts and not the cost of the innovation,” Utkarsh added.

“I had prepared a model of a Mars rover, which got selected by the jury to be part of ‘Team Kaizel’,” said Om.

Team Kaizel has been formed by an NGO, Young Mind Research and Development Organisation, whose founder, Gopal Jee, is a Faridabad-based scientist. He said Team Kaizel had selected seven students by October of last year, and the rest were selected in January and February. Team Kaizel has secured funding from the M3M Foundation, he added.

The six other Indian teams are from Birla Institute of Technology and Science-Pilani, Goa Campus, Candor International School, Bengaluru, Kanakia International School, Mumbai, KIET Group of Institutions, Delhi-NCR, Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh, and Vellore Institute of Technology, Chennai.