NASA’s Human Exploration Rover Challenge

Ludhiana, May 2, 2022: The American Space Agency NASA has announced the final results of their 8-months long Human Exploration Rover Challenge (HERC) on Friday and DCM Presidency School, Ludhiana has brought laurel to India in “STEM Engagement” category, as the premium school under the aegis of DCM Group of Schools, bagged the first position among thousands of schools participated from around the world. 

NASA launched an international competition in July 2021 by involving college and high school students in a rigorous, relevant, and continuously evolving project-based learning approach, which engaged students in hands-on engineering design related to NASA’s missions. NASA HERC is the agency’s highest-profile Artemis Student Challenge in which students of age group 14-19 are involved in engineering design challenges with an aim to engage students in the next phase of human space exploration. The annual event provides students a platform to create a human-powered vehicle designed to traverse the simulated surface of another (extraterrestrial) world and complete mission tasks along the way. DCM Presidency School was the only school from India that was selected in the high school category by NASA in October 2021 to participate in this challenge. The school team received an invitation to present their prototype at an event in the US Space Centre, Huntsville, Alabama. However, due to the resurgence of Covid cases, NASA decided in early February to conduct the demonstration event in a virtual mode. DCM Presidency’s team designed, built and tested technologies that enable rovers to perform in a variety of environments. The 5’ x 5’ x 5’ prototype of the rover was constructed by the team who received sponsorship from Ceigall India Limited, Ludhiana under the latter's Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) scheme. NASA highlighted in the award ceremony that DCM Presidency has engaged around 3000 students of various schools in Ludhiana and Chandigarh in STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics) Engagement Activities, which is a great achievement at an international level. The Presidency's team demonstrated activities related to engineering design process, vehicle mechanisms, 3D designing and printing etc., to these students from both private and government schools. 

CEO of the legacy educational group Dr. Anirudh Gupta said that he has great vision for the students and teachers to get engaged in research projects during their school years and he congratulated the leader of the team Ms.Rameeta Sharma, AVP Science and Technology and her team of students for this great achievement. He further said that the group has launched several other initiatives in collaboration with top Indian and international universities, to inculcate research mindset among students. He particularly highlighted the legacy group’s recent launch of the Junior Student Research Fellowship (JSRF) Program through which students will get a platform and adequate funding for realizing their research ideas into prototypes. 

The team advisor Ms. Rameeta Sharma said that she’s so elated that her team could achieve such a great recognition and thanked all the 11 students of her team for their enthusiasm and motivation in realizing the project to a reality as they worked really hard - both indoors and outdoors - during the last few months. 

School Principal Ms. Rajni Kalra said that she’s proud of her team for this great achievement which will undoubtedly boost the motivation of the children to participate in such major events in future.