For the First Time Ever Pakistan Participates & Wins at Singapore AUV Challenge

The Fifth annual SAUVC took place from 10^th-13^th March 2017. For the first time four students accompanied by three teachers from the Center for Advanced Studies in Engineering (CASE), Islamabad participated in this competition. This does not come as a surprise, because the institute has quite a good track record, for in previous years it has taken part in various other events related to Robotics and done considerably well.

The team comprised of Haider Iftikhar, Mehrosh Fareed, Saad Malik, Usman Abid with their supervisors Adeel Muhammad, Dr. Mansoor Shaukat and Waqas-Ur-Rehman. They are all members of the CASE Robotic Group.

They competed against 12 other teams that were representing China, Indonesia, India, Malaysia, Russia, Singapore and the USA. The Pakistani squad really impressed everyone with their skills and innovation, which resulted in their winning in two categories. They shared the top position with Russia in Fastest Completion of Tasks and stood first in Most Liked Photography.

What is the SAUVC?

The (SAUVC) is a one of its kind international competition which began in 2013, and is organized by the Singapore chapter of IEEE (Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers) Oceanic Engineering Society. It was initiated so as to give engineering students from all over the world the opportunity to enhance their learning as well as showcase their skills in underwater robotics. It also serves as a means of increasing awareness regarding careers in Marine Robotics.

The competition is among autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV) which are actually robots built by the students, and programmed in such a manner that they navigate and perform various tasks underwater without having to control them.