IT Minister KT Rama Rao, expressed his views after meeting the winner of RICE University Challenge winner Ujjalwal Aggarwal, Founder of WCB Robotics and a student of BITS Pilani Hyderabad Campus.
Hyderabad, India , April 24, 2018: Congratulating team WCB Robotics that brought laurel to the city after winning the RICE University Challenge, and TiE Hyderabad initiative to nurture early stage ventures, Hon’ble Minister for IT, Industries, MA & UD, NRI Affairs, Govt of Telangana Shri K T Rama Rao urged “innovative hardware products must be developed at T-Works.”
He was interacting with WCB Robotics Founder Ujjal Aggarwal, TiE Hyderabad President Kali Prasad, Executive Director Phani Pattamatta along with Principal Secretary (IT&EC) to Govt. of Telangana, Shri Jayesh Ranjan.
Earlier in the month, this TiE GRAD 2017 finalist, Windows Cleaning Robot (WCB) won close to half a million USD in investments from TiE Houston Angels and GOOSE Society of Texas during the Rice Business Plan Competition (RBPC) at Houston, Texas. It is after 9 years that any team from India went on to finals and first one to win such grand prize money, in the Rice Univ. Challenge, the world’s richest and largest student startup competition.
Telangana State Hon’ble Minister for IT Shri K T Rama Rao said, “This is a fantastic achievement for this student startup from Hyderabad under the able guidance of TiE Mentors. Wish to see many such young innovators through TiE GRAD program in the coming years. I wish WCB a great success.”
Principal Secretary (IT&EC) to Govt. of Telangana, Shri Jayesh Ranjan, IAS suggested, “WCB Robotics should choose the state-of-the-art facilities at T-WORKS for its hardware product development phase. I congratulate BITS Pilani Hyderabad Campus and TiE Hyderabad and for incubating and mentoring Ujjawal of WCB Robotics to transform his idea to a globally acclaimed innovation.”
Mr Kali Prasad, President, TiE Hyderabad & Office Managing Partner, E&Y thanked the minister for his suggestions and guidance to this young startup and said, “It’s a matter of great pride for TiE Hyderabad that our TiE Grad 2017 winner is able to compete with teams from Ivy League institutions, like MIT and Harvard and emerge as winner in many categories. Hope to see more such cases in the coming batches. “
Mr Ujjawal Agarwal, Founder, WCB Robotics and final year student at BiTS Pilani (Hyderabad Campus) said, “The TiE mentoring bootcamp has been a great help to build confidence and compete against teams from global universities viz MIT, Harvard, UT Austin etc. I thank TiE GRAD for providing me with such an amazing opportunity and a global exposure. It’s truly encouraging to receive valuable guidance from the Hon’ble Minister and IT Secretary to choose T-Works for our WCB product development phase”
