Team Patiala wins NASA project

The 18-member team includes 11 students from TIET, seven from Budha Dal Public School, two teacher advisers and five associates. Aarti Kaphpal, wife of Dr Maneek Kumar, Assistant Professor in the Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology and the main guide of the team, said her husband called her up this morning to inform her about the team’s triumph.

‘‘He said they were overwhelmed at the honour the team had managed to bag,’’ she beamed. The team members, who could not be contacted for they were on the move, were feted with medals, trophies and certificates.

Back home, Budha Dal Public School declared a holiday to celebrate the news.

Ironically, the Punjab government which had promised to finance the team’s visit to the US failed to do so, forcing the children to pool in their resources.

In the US, they got immense support from Harrison who not only showed them around the NASA facilities but also boosted their morale during the contest.

Besides herself with joy, Amrit Aujla, principal of Budha Dal Public School, said the team scored heavily in the field of presentation, clarity of the project and the quiz round. Abhishek Aggarwal, a first-year student of Civil Engineering at TIET, is said to be the brain behind the contest.