Calcutta: Vikhyat Agarwal, 14, and his father Naresh bond not over football or cycling but robotics.

The Class IX student of Calcutta International School was gifted his first Lego kit by his father when he was 10. The two would spend hours poring over the bricks, tiles and knobs. The passion continues, only now the play blocks have been replaced with more serious stuff.

Naresh, a chartered accountant by profession, would learn from the Internet before passing on the skills to his son.

"My dad coached me by learning on the Internet. We also taught each other at times," said Vikhyat, one of the participants at the World Robot Olympiad 2018 at The Newtown School last week.

Vikhyat has formed a robotics club in his school and programmed a motion sensing game called Drone Shootout.

"I practise for eight to 10 hours every day," said the boy who is working on artificial intelligence and machine learning with his father.

Father Naresh is happy with his son's enthusiasm. "I introduced him to robotics to see if he had any interest. And it turned out that he was totally into it. So I invested in Java tutorials and at times he has been my teacher, too," said the proud papa.

Ayushman Sarkar, 10, started dabbling with robotics three years ago. The movement of automated toy cars piqued his curiosity and a chance at a summer camp opened the doors to robotics for the Class V boy of The Future Foundation School.

"I was so fascinated by the toy cars that I would open them up to find out how they worked. When my mom enrolled me into a summer camp that offered robotics, it opened a big window for me. I love programming now," he said.

His teammate Achintya Kanoria of Sri Sri Academy loves assembling different parts of a robot. "I was introduced to robotics by a teacher in my housing complex. Since then, I have loved designing my own robot," the Class V student said.

The regional competition saw a total of 22 schools participating in two categories - elementary and junior high.

If students were enthusiastic, then parents were encouraging. Aryan Mallick's tryst with robotics started when he was in Class V and dad Biswa Ranjan made sure he remained focused.

At the competition to cheer his son, Biswa Ranjan said, "I am happy that The Newtown School offers robotics. It is very constructive. With each passing year, his interest in the field has grown and I want him to remain focused," he said.

Both Vikhyat's and Aryan's teams qualified for the nationals.