Pathbreaker : Robotics

People aspire to be wealthy, for all good reasons, however, it's a luxury only a few inherit, others have to earn it for themselves. Sakyasingha Mahapatra's story may not be one from the rag to the riches yet it's a truly inspiring one. Having studied BTech at Anna University, Chennai his passion for robotics was pretty discernable right from his college life. Designing robots and submitting research papers to various international conferences is what kept him occupied as a student. Eventually, he used to get selected for various national and Asia-level conferences as well.

His love for robotics found wings when he landed up at Pune to have himself trained in robotics via industrial automation company. As expected, the leap from trainee to trainer was a matter of a couple of months. During his short spell with the company, he grabbed the opportunity of travelling across the country imparting training as a robotic expert. It is this experience which prompted Sakya to don the hat of an entrepreneur, he took the pathbreaking decision of setting up a first of its kind training institute in our very own Smart City Bhubaneswar.

His entrepreneurial venture, SakRobotix Lab has emerged as a National Leader in Educational Robotics, technology, innovation, Research & consulting in India. His vision is to bring One Robot to One Home and turn India into the next robotics capital of the world. Currently, the training institute has already trained 17,000 students + to imbibe interesting skills of creating robots in them.

However, the journey started with a just Rs. 700 in his pocket, countless visits to various colleges in Bhubaneswar and unwelcoming response from the students. Without any a training centre and accompanying infrastructure, the coffee shops came to his rescue and laptop was served as his primary asset. The word of mouth and the coffee shop 10 per cent commission is how the business got going.

Starving days along with long walks to his friend's apartment where he had managed to get himself some room,this guy hailing from a small villages of Khurda district now fondly romanticises his tough struggle days. Initially he slogged hard and organized numerous talks and debates for companies to finally taste success. What brings a contentful smile on his face is the change in perspective of people of the nation as well the smart capital city of Odisha;the acknowledgement that robotics is the future

Sakya claims to design application-based robots which can indulge into multitasking ranging from household chores to underwater surveillance and search operations. Consumer robots, robotic toys, educational robots and defence equipment are various kinds of robots they create and train at SaksRbotics Lab. He has plans to take the training to the digital level. Having created the footprint in the untapped sector with enormous potential and he is hoping to go a long way ahead.