National ElectroniX Olympiad

National ElectroniX Olympiad (NEO), formerly known as ‘All Pakistan ElectroniX Olympiad’, is a robotics event held at Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Science and Technology. It is organized by IEEE and WIE GIK Chapter.

NEO is a three day event organized during spring semester. It includes different technical modules such as line tracking, figure 8, non technical modules and social events. Only a few competitions are restricted to IEEE members, while the rest are open to all. Students of universities from around Pakistan participate in this competition. The event has taken place every year since 2008. Winners of every module are awarded with cash prizes.

IEEE & WIE GIKI Chapter

The Institute of Electrical and ElectronicsEngineers (IEEE, read I-Triple-E)GIKI Chapter, normally referred to as IEEE GIKI, is an active student branch of IEEE Islamabad section, Region 10. It is run by the bright and innovative students of Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute (GIK Institute) under the supervision of Administration of the institute and the faculty of Electronics engineering. IEEE GIKI is a non-profit organization that works to ensure innovation, technology advancement and carries out further research in the field of Robotics. Being one of the biggest technical societies in a leading engineering institute in Pakistan, IEEE GIKI has never failed to entertain the students, helping them out technically and academically. IEEE GIKI holds many events for the promotion of robotics which includes Robot making workshops, Seminars conducted by leading figures in the field,Web-designing workshops, Inter-university robotics competitions, and an All-Pakistan National Electronics Olympiad (NEO).

WIE GIKI chapter is an affinity group of IEEE GIKI Chapter that works in collaboration with the organization. WIE Chapter is basically for the promotion of women in engineering. It works to facilitate the female engineering students and inspire the girls to use their diverse talents to innovate for the benefit of humanity. It was inaugurated at Pakistan Student/GOLD/WIE congress 2012

Modules

Technical Modules

Robomaze

Inside the maze, there is only one starting and one ending point. One robot at a time enters the maze to which it has to take any desired path in order to go to the end points while performing their specified task. The team which completes its task in less time is considered the winner.

Robothon

It is a line tracking competition in which there is a white line on a blue background. This line is 3 centimeters wide. There are different categories in these modules, with a different arena design for each category.

Race to Innovation

The modules test the innovative skills of participants in the domain of circuit designing and electrics. It comprises a quiz competition and practical tasks to be implemented.

MIC Night

It is a micro controller interfacing competition. Participants can get data from anywhere (the internet, books, journals, etc.). Teams must know hardware interfacing such as LCD, External Memory, and Motors interfacing).

Ethics Competition

The contest includes a case study regarding a professional act or behavior and a five-minutes presentation regarding the ethical analysis of the act.

Speak It Up

This is a module where students meet, discuss, debate and try to find solutions to problems that are prevalent in Pakistan. Each participant has to speak at the conference about their general stand of the topic. After the opening speeches, the debate starts followed by a General parliamentary procedure.

Project Exhibition

Maximum number of members in a team is four. The charts and abstract should contain a simple description of their project.

Social Highlights

Social events are planned throughout the three day event in order to entertain and refresh the participants between tough and tiring competitions. They mainly consist of a Hiking Trip, a Gala Dinner, Summit 4 Glory, and a concert.

1st All Pakistan ElectroniX Olympiad

The Olympiad was first organized in 2009 with the title “FIRST ALL PAKISTANI ELECTRONIX OLYMPIAD”. The event held from January 30 to February 1, 2009. The technical modules of the event were Robothon (maze solving competition, brainwave quiz competition, microcontroller interfacing and explore a vision).

2nd All Pakistan ElectroniX Olympiad

The following year Olympiad held from February 10, 2010. All the modules were the same and a total of eighty students participated in the event.

3rd All Pakistan ElectroniX Olympiad

The third Olympiad was held from February 10 through February 13, 2011. In addition to the previous technical modules, a new module was introduced named Antenna Design Competition.

4th All Pakistan ElectroniX Olympiad

The fourth Olympiad was held from March 11 through March 12, 2012. This year's modules were divided into senior and junior categories. Senior category modules were designed for university level students and the junior category for high school students. Senior category consisted of Robothon, MIC Geek Freak, Simulation Lab View, Explore a Vision, Race To Innovation, Gismo Tech and Brainwave Competition. This year Robothon included Line Tracking Competition along with Maze Solving. The junior modules were Robo Wars, Robo Soccer, Project Exhibition, Race to Innovation, Survival of Brainiac and Symposium. The number of participants this year was around 200.

5th National ElectroniX Olympiad 2013

From 2013 onwards this event was renamed “National Electronics Olympiad”. This year the event was held from February 8 through February 10. Almost 250 young brainiacs from different universities throughout Pakistan participated in the Olympiad. The NEO13 was composed of several modules, each of which challenged the intellect and skills of the participants to a greater extent. This year Robothon included two categories for line tracking; a main track event for microcontroller based robots and a Figure 8 competition for logic and Lego based robots. Maze Solving competition was made a separate module with the title Robomaze. In the Robothon main track event, PIEAS succeeded in making their way to victory and in the Figure 8 Competition team from Head Start school emerged as the winner. The students of FAST Islamabad bagged the 1st prize in MIC Night competition. In Race to Innovation and Speak It Up, the students of PIEAS again were the victors. Social events included a scavenger hunt, hill trekking, themed lunch and a concert by SYMT band.

6th National ElectroniX Olympiad 2014

National Electronics Olympiad (NEO) ’14 emerged to be another successful robotics competition held by IEEE GIKI Student Branch, from 31st Jan to 2nd Feb 2014. It was the 6th event held for the participants from all over the country to compete in different robotic modules where they could test their skills and prove themselves the winners. The event this year held many modules such as Robothon, Figure 8, RoboMaze, Race to Innovation, Project Exhibition, Speak it Up, RoboWars, PCB Design and MIC Night. RoboWars was the addition of a new module in which robots fought “till the last one standing”. In the module Figure 8 Lego Based, Namal Mianwali bagged the first prize whereas Logic Based was won by a team from SSUET. Winner of Project Exhibition was the team from MAJU. FAST NU Islamabad was the winner of RoboWars, Race to Innovation, Robothon and MIC Night. Speak it up! Winners’ prize was taken by National Textile University, Faisalabad. RoboMaze ended with NUST C.E.M.E. as the winners. PAF KIET made their way to victory in PCB Design. Arslan Shahid (UOL) was the winner of The Best Ambassador Award. This year, an addition was the NEO Trophy which was to be claimed by the University that had shown distinction in most modules. The first winner of the Trophy was FAST NU Islamabad that had emerged as the winners in four different modules. The Social Events held this year were Scavenger Hunt (won by University of Lahore), Theme Dinner and Hiking Trip.