HELIOS 2026

HELIOS 2026, the inaugural edition of NPS Koramangala’s interschool robotics competition for Grades 6 to 8, was held on 20th August 2026 at NPS Koramangala under the theme Build. Code. Innovate., with each participating school fielding a team of four students. The event was graced and judged by Ms. Anuradha Balasubramanian, Founder & Managing Director of Centrado Tech Solutions, and Mr. Rajagopalan Venkataraman, Co-Founder & Director at Centrado, whose work in making STEM learning accessible and engaging set the tone for the day.

Every team received an identical kit (an ESP32 with L298N motor driver, robot chassis, servo, and a sensor set spanning ultrasonic, IR, flame, soil moisture, gas and sound), with no external components, pre-written code or AI tools permitted, ensuring teams were judged on engineering thinking rather than hardware budget or outside help. Teams had three hours to assemble their robots and write and debug their programs in the Arduino IDE, building solutions to real-world problems across domains such as agriculture automation, healthcare assistance, environmental protection, disaster management and assistive technology.

After a short break, the presentation and judging round followed, with each team taking the floor to cover its problem statement, design approach, circuit explanation, programming logic, live demonstration, social impact and viva voce. With identical kits in play, the viva voce proved decisive, as teams in which all four members could explain their own circuit and code consistently came out ahead. At the valedictory session, NPS HSR Layout was declared the winner with Agribot X, an agriculture-focused solution that showed a clear line of reasoning from problem to sensor selection to actuation, backed by a clean build, a successful demonstration and a confident viva; NPS Rajajinagar (RNR) placed second, and NPS Hosur Road received a Special Mention from the judging panel. The energy on the floor through the day, from the first wiring attempts to the final demonstrations, made the inaugural edition of HELIOS a resounding success, and NPS Koramangala looks forward to welcoming its young innovators back for an even bigger edition next year.