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Robotics 2019

Awareness Initiatives

1. Nehru Science Center - 18th October 2018

During Global Science week we conducted a FIRST FLL Kickoff at The Nehru Science Center - India’s largest interactive science center. We interacted with over 200 students from numerous schools across Mumbai. We effectively spread awareness of various FIRST programs, encouraged participation in FIRST events and gave students a hands-on enriching experience of building lego robots.

2. Nehru Science Center - 24th Feburary 2020

Following last season’s outreach event at The Nehru Science Centre, this year a group of students went to the Science Center where we put up a stall with different robots from the various FIRST programs. The purpose of the event was to raise awareness amongst children from over 30 schools across Mumbai. Our session was highly interactive and gave students the opportunity to control the FLL robots and play RoboSoccer. They showed extreme enthusiasm and eagerness to start their own robotic team. It was a fruitful outreach and we reached out to around 200 children and school teachers.

3. Eldrok Conference - 26th September 2018

We participated in the Eldrok India K-12 Summit where we efficiently spread awareness of FIRST programs amongst educators of schools across Mumbai. This event allowed them to explore different activities that they could inculcate in their curriculum. We achieved our goal by encouraging many schools to participate in FLL competitions and start robotics programs within their schools. We spoke with over 50 teachers and educated them about FIRST. We were also given the opportunity to present and share our experiences with the audience.

4. School CAS Fete - January 2019 and 2020

The CAS fete is an annual event held at Dhirubhai Ambani International School. Here students from grades 11-12 put up stalls, play games and sell merchandise in order to raise funds for NGOs. We have had a Team Elev8 stall for the past two years. Here our team conducted games like Robo-Soccer, Bowling pin shooter and drone flying. We managed to raise over 13,000 Rupees that we used for our outreach events. We effectively raised awareness of FIRST and Team Elev8 within our community, so that we can have more members in the future.

5. Weekly STEM Workshop for Girls - 24th January – 28th Feburary 2020

We conducted an 4-week Robotics workshop for girls from grades 5-9 at Dhirubhai Ambani International School. We successfully achieved the purpose of the workshops by spreading awareness of STEM and FIRST programs. We guided the students through the construction of lego robots and EV3 bricks. We also addressed the various aspects of FIRST programs like outreach, construction and programming.

6. Interaction Jerry Ross - 17th January 2019

Jerry Ross is a renowned astronaut and the record holder for the most space flights. Dhirubhai Ambani International School and Purdue University collaborated with The Cultural Affairs Department and the US Consulate General Mumbai for the visit of inspirational NASA astronaut Col. Jerry Ross. This interaction informed us about his experiences, goals and challenges through which we learnt important life lessons. Through this outreach we realized the vast horizon of opportunities available for us in the field of STEM. It also helped us spread the message FIRST globally.

7. Infinite inspirations Series - January 11th – March 6th 2020

“Infinite Inspirations” is a series of outreaches started by Team Elev8. This weekly series allowed us to interact with influential change makers and CEO’s from companies like TV18, Antarang,Hungama. We have also had professors from respected schools like the Indian Institution of Technology. Through these 12 sessions we were able to spread the message of FIRST and FIRST programs. Additionally these sessions were highly beneficial as we received important feedback on our presentational skills that helped us improve our outreach and fundraising events. We also took back many life lessons and essential skills from these sessions.

8. Alumni Meet - January 4th 2020

The team held an Alumni meet at Dhirubhai Ambani International School wherein former team members from Team R-factor and Team Elev8 visited us. They shared their personal experiences which enabled us to learn from their mistakes and propel our way forward as the competition approaches. Not only did they give us an insight of how to improve and work more efficiently but, they also encouraged us to do so by sharing certain challenges they faced and how they overcame them. Our interaction with them enabled us to recognise mistakes and effectively correct them.

First kickoffs

1. “Block by Block” at DAIS - 17th November 2019

The “Block by Block” was a FLL kickoff event held at Dhirubhai Ambani International School. We effectively achieved our goal of imparting knowledge of FIRST and STEM across 150 children from 15 different schools and 2 NGO’s. The kickoff was successful as we were able to introduce the FLL program within our community. Through this mock competition we were able to teach essential programming and construction skills to children from grades 4-8.

2. “The Launch” at DAIS - 28th October 2018

The Launch was a large scale FLL kickoff organized by Team Elev8 and Team R-Factor at Dhirubhai Ambani International School. Over 200 students attended this event, making it a huge success. Students were guided through ideating a strategy to design a robot. We efficiently raised awareness of various FIRST programs and introduced the First Lego League to children from ages 9-14. The event also exposed them to a hands-on learning method.

3. “The Launch” at Goa - 3rd Novemeber 2018

“The Launch" was a FLL kickoff event we held in Goa, in collaboration with the Goan State Government and the local robotics team. Over 200 children from various schools in Goa participated in this event. This workshop consisted of activities such as building a lego robot and brainstorming on different strategies. The event was attended by the Education Minister of Goa, who was interested in learning more about FIRST programs and its implementation in schools across Goa. The event was made even more successful after one team went ahead to win the Core Values Award at the Western Regionals FLL competition.

4. “Mission Mars” at the American School Bombay - 21st October 2018

Team Pangea and Team Elev8 co-organised a design thinking workshop at the American School Bombay. The mentor of Team Pangea John Kilbane hosted the session, through which we effectively introduced the Deep Space challenge for FLL. We effectively achieved our aim as the students were exposed to challenges and had to come up with innovative and tactical solutions. They built models that reflected their learnings from the session. This was a successful event as the students thoroughly enjoyed the event and we efficiently transmitted essential skills like hands-on learning.

5. “The Launch” in Indonesia at Sinarmas World Academy - 19th -23rd January 2019

We were given the opportunity of holding an outreach event at The Sinarmas World Academy, one of the most renowned schools in Indonesia. “The Launch '' took place at the school campus, where students of grades 4 to 12 participated in a RoboSoccer competition. We witnessed a range of ideas that were advanced and unique. The students gained an enriching experience in the fields of construction and programming. The event was a great success as we were able to raise awareness of FIRST programs amongst all the school teachers. Through the event we were able to explain how FIRST and STEM could be inculcated into the school curriculum.

6. “The Launch” in Jakarta at Creative Kids - 22nd January 2019

This was an awareness camp held in the STEM fraternity in Jakarta where we effectively promoted the FIRST Robotics Competition. Our audience included students and parents who have participated in FLL and were looking for the next step forward. We skillfully explained the process and impact of FRC on our team, the commitments, infrastructural requirements and its benefits. The event was well received by students, parents and the team at Creative Kids.

Community Outreach

1. Aagam 2020 - 11th January

Aagam 2020 was Gujarat`s biggest interschool STEM Based Robotics competition. 69 teams from 30 schools of Gujarat participated in this event. Students were asked to come up with unique & innovative solutions to problems like “Traffic woes free city” & “Energy Efficient City”. Judges were mesmerised to see the 69 working prototpyes at this event. The event was inaugurated by the commissioner of Rajkot & witnessed by more than 500 visitors from across the state. Winners were given robotics kit as a prize for firther DIYing at home. Aagam 2020 saw 50% increase in the participation from Aagam 2018.

2. Acorn foundation - January 25th – March 6th 2020

The Acorn Foundation is a trust that works with the children of rag-pickers in Asia’s largest slums, Dharavi. The aim of this weekly outreach gave students the opportunity to explore robotics and different fields of STEM. At the same time they were exposed to vital skills which could potentially mould their future. This outreach was extremely impactful as we were able to establish a close knit relationship with the children and also provide them with an enriching experience to build Lego robots. It was beneficial for the students as they were able to come up with innovative ideas and use ingenious techniques to make the robot.

3. Girls outreach on women’s day - 8TH March 2019

On women's day we hosted an outreach for girls from grades 1-4 at the Dhirubhai Ambani International School. Our primary goal was to encourage more girls to take part in STEM-related activities, such as robotics, and create a girl-friendly work environment at our school. We introduced them to our robot and different FIRST programs that they could participate in. This event was extremely special to all the girls in our team and helped encourage many more girls to participate in the FIRST programs.

4. National Girl Child Day - 24th January 2019

On 24th January India celebrates National Girl Child Day. Team Elev8 held a girls centric outreach to celebrate this day. The purpose of the outreach was to educate girls about different STEM and FIRST fields as well as peak their interest in robotics. The outreach was held in Dhirubhai Ambani International School with girls of grades 6. The event allowed girls to push the limits and explore robotics as they built Lego robots and solved numerous challenges.

5. Niti Aayog - Febuary 6th 2020

Niti Aayog is a policy think tank started by the Government of India, established to help achieve the sustainable development goals. Here the team met with Mr. Amitabh Kant, Vice Chairman Mr. Rajiv Kumar and MD Mr. Ramanan. The purpose of this outreach was to raise awareness of FIRST programs and brainstorm on how we could incorporate the FIRST program in India. We are looking forward to a future of collaboration with NITI Aayog and Atal Tinkering Labs. This opportunity will pave the path to the FIRST revolution in India.

6. ‘Recycling Thursdays’ - Recycling drive - 16th January 2020 – 4th March 2020

Our team strives to be sustainable and environmentally friendly, for the same reason we have started ‘Recycling Thursdays’. Recycling Thursdays is a drive we conduct on a weekly basis where the team collects different kinds of waste such as paper and e-waste. We have connected with different recycling centres in order to recycle these materials. This initiative has helped us achieve our our aim of being a sustainable team.

7. Teacher training in Goa - 16th Feburary 2019

As part of our collaboration with the Goan government, Team Elev8 hosted a teacher training session using Lego mindstorms in Goa. Our purpose was to expose teachers to robotics so that they could create a sustainable STEM environment and encourage students to take part in FIRST programs. We were able to achieve our aim through the 15+ hours of training as the teachers not only purchased numerous ev3 kits through our team and promised to form many FLL teams.

8. Teacher training in Gujarat - 21st Feburary 2019

The team worked with the Gujarat government to conduct an outreach event in Aravally, Gujarat with over 200 teachers from scheduled tribes. The aim of the outreach was to create a sustainable STEM environment in schools by exposing the teachers to Scratch programming. This event was successful as we were able to encourage technological proficiency in rural areas and reach out to a large number of students through their teachers.

9. Sankalp Shikshan Sanstha - Novemebr 2019 - Feburary 2020

The Sankalp Shikshan Sanstha works with students who have hearing disabilities. Our team visits the institution on a weekly basis where we have introduced them to Robotics and FLL. The team has effectively mentored two Sankalp teams that have participated in the FLL regionals. Our aim here was to expose the students to robotics and break the communication barriers to provide the students with an enriching and extremely beneficial opportunity. The students have come a long way as they have learnt essential values like cooperation and teamwork. Our interaction with them has given them exposure to the various fields in STEM which has helped them explore various paths they can follow in the future.

International students exchange outreach

At Dhirubhai Ambani International School, we have various international students visiting our campus as part of different exchange programs. We used this as an opportunity to educate these students about STEM and FIRST programs. We effectively exposed them to essential skills like hands-on learning by demonstrating our robot and teaching them robot building using lego. Each of these events was highly successful as we were able to encourage many schools and students to explore FIRST programs.

Chinese exchange

German exchange

French exchange

Spanish/czech exchange

International outreach

1. International sports fest - 17th December 2018

“The Launch” was part of the International Sports fest held at Dhirubhai Ambani International School. We had teams from South Korea, Japan, France, Sri Lanka, Germany, Oman, UAE, Kenya and UK attend this event. Over 150 students attended this FLL Kickoff. The purpose of the event was to raise FIRST awareness globally through our interaction with students and teachers from across the world. The event served as a great introduction to STEM and all the FIRST programs. The students were able to experience an enriching session of robot building.

2. Robotics Association of Nepal - 25th -26th January 2020

Two students and a mentor from team elev8 travelled to Kathmandu to teach robotics at the Robotics Association of Nepal. Through this two day event we encouraged many students to participate in STEM activities and FIRST programs. Our purpose was to introduce the various FIRST programs within the community and also help the authorities form different kinds of FIRST teams. The event turned out to be a great success as we were able to hold an extensive hands-on session with 37 students across 7 different schools in Kathmandu.

Initiatives for forming new teams

1. Aditya Birla World Academy - 18th Feburary 2020

Aditya Birla World Academy (ABWA) is a school for ages 4-18, situated in Mumbai. Here we interacted with the students who are part of the school’s STEM club. The purpose of this outreach was to help and guide the school towards starting their own FRC team. We spoke to them about the competition, the technical and non-technical skills involved, the challenges faced by a Rookie team and how one can overcome said challenges. It was an extremely productive and enriching experience. We hope to help them through their journey in the FIRST Robotics Competition and see them at the regionals next year.

2. National Public School – Singapore - November 2019

Mentors from our team visited The National Public School in Singapore. Here they made a presentation which explained what FIRST and FRC is, the essentials of a FRC team. We spoke with the teachers, students and parents of the team. After which they formed their FRC Team 8235 Beyond the Flames from Singapore. We have been in touch with the team and helped them out with any challenges they have faced.

Mentorship Program

1. Online classes with Rookie Teams - January – Feburary 2020

As a veteran team we used online platforms like Skype to conduct lessons and provide comprehensive mentorship to rookie teams from Istanbul and Turkey. We helped both these teams out with the difficulties they were facing and suggested effective solutions. We helped these teams with programming and construction related doubts and the session lasted about half an hour. This meeting was very enriching and allowed us to interact with members of other Rookie Teams from around the world and help them out with problems we were facing ourselves last year.

2. Mentoring First Teams

Team Elev8 believes in helping out and mentoring FIRST teams through their journey. During our last season we mentored 8 FLL teams, 5 Junior FLL teams, and 2 FTC teams. This experience was enriching for our team and the other teams as we were able to interact and communicate with students from different backgrounds.

To take this initiative forward this season we have mentored 6 Junior FLL teams - Team Alpha City, Team City Ninjas, Team Town Titans, Team Town Champions (8th place), Team Little Rockers, Team Kaboom (4th place) . we have mentored 7 FLL teams - Team City Initiators (3rd place championship), Team Green Vitality (10th place championship, Team Urban Wizards (6th place championship), Team Shadow Engineers, Team City decoders, and Team City Masters. Apart from this we have mentored 2 FTC teams across India. Amongst these FLL teams we had 2 teams that we mentored on a weekly basis from the Sankalp Shikshan Sanstha, a school for the hearing impaired. Whether one is a mentor or a student, these sessions acted as eye-openers for all of us as we learnt so much from each team’s core values.

3. Sharing Resources

Through the course of this season Team Elev8 has bonded with Team Pangea from the American School of Bombay by sharing a wide range of our resources such as batteries which functions as the main working mechanism for the robot and manpower as a majority of the students from Team Elev8 help and guide them through the whole process of making the robot.

4. Online manuals - 2019-2020

Our team strives to provide a plethora of resources regarding FIRST competitions for the benefit of others. One of which is in the form of several online manuals we have made available to download at 'team7539.com'. These include manuals to assist FLL mentors, manuals for rookie FRC teams written using our own experiences as a 2019 rookie team and a manual regarding the often confusing changes that have been made in the WPI library. We hoped to help many Rookie teams strive towards excellence and overcome any challenges

5. Assistance to FIRST teams

We have assisted 8 FLL Jr. teams – Team S Cube (10th place), Team Brick Builders, Team Architects, Team Dexter’s Downtown, Team Diamond Town, Team Scara Tech, Team Tapi Town, Team Step of Town.

We have assisted and started 1 FTC team - Blue Blizzards, from Rajkot in Gujarat (Winning Alliance First Team and Motivate Award)

6. Starting FIRST teams

We have started and mentored a FLL team - Team Bot Busters, who won the 4th place championship and are now going to. They were a part of our FLL kickoff at the Dhirubhai Ambani International School this season, and were inspired to participate themselves.

First competitions

1. FLL National Northern and Western Championship - 13th January 2019

Team Elev8 organized the FLL National Northern and Western Region Championship. During this event, we interacted with FLL teams, provided effective infrastructure to conduct the competition and raised awareness about other FIRST programs. Overall, this event was an incredible success.

2.FTC National Championship - 24th-25th Feburary 2019

The 2019 FTC National Championships took place in Balevadi, Pune. We were associate sponsors and our goal at the event was to spread awareness of Team Elev8 and inspire others at the event, so as to develop and broaden the horizons of the FIRST community in India. We effectively achieved our aim as we were able to reach out to numerous teams.

3.FLL Western India National Championship - 18TH – 19th January 2020

FLL stands for the FIRST Lego League, a robotics competition wherein children use LEGO bricks to build a robot that can complete the provided challenge. It imbibes the skills and values of STEM at an early stage in a way that is familiar to the child. Our team was responsible for sponsoring various teams at the regionals and nationals that won in our FLL kickoffs. Moreover, we advertised FLL and distributed digital flyers to increase awareness and interest in FLL and ensure that more teams participated in the kickoffs and subsequently, the regionals/nationals. A team of 6 students, called Bot Busters, that had participated and won in a kickoff event was mentored by us and won the Best Project Presentation and Outreach Award. They placed 4th in the FLL Western India Championships and will now represent India in Russia, at an international scale. So, our FLL outreach can and has thrusted others in our community to new heights in the field of robotics.

4.FTC National Championship - 31st -2nd Feburary 2020

FTC is the First Tech Challenge, a robotics competition similar to FRC with smaller bots and a relatively simpler challenge. Team Elev8 mentored FTC Team Sigma. We were responsible for guiding them through their process of writing the robot code and conducting outreach events. As they were a rookie team, they required our mentorship and we were proactive in our assistance to ensure that they were well-equipped to participate in the competition. They eventually won the Control Award and were part of the runner-up alliance in the FTC Western India Championships.

Changemaker interactions

1. Infosys award ceremony - 5th January 2019

The Infosys Prize Ceremony is an event organized by the Infosys Science Foundation to award those who have made excellent contributions in the fields of science and research. Members from Team Elev8 visited this ceremony with the intention to promote the ideals of FIRST. We were given the honor to meet Nobel Laureate Professor Amartya Sen, Narayana Murthy, Professor R Brandon Fradd, Professor Kavita Singh and Manjul Bhargava. The experience was extremely enriching for all Team Elev8 members since they got to meet nationally renowned changemakers.

2. Infosys award ceremony - 7th January 2020

The Infosys Prize Ceremony is an event organized by the Infosys Science Foundation to award those who have made excellent contributions in the fields of science and research. Team Elev8 had the privilege of being invited to attend the ceremony in Bengaluru. We went in with the aim to promote FIRST and Team Elev8. We were given the honor to meet Nobel Laureate Professor Amartya Sen, Narayana Murthy, Professor Anand Pandian, Professor Siddhartha Mishra and Manjula Reddy. Our team effectively spread the message of Team Elev8 and our journey. The experience was also extremely inspiring and enlightening for many students as they were able to interact with their role models.

2. Interactions with Influencers

Ajay Tyagi is the Chairman of Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI)

Ashish Chauhan is the CEO of the Bombay Stock Exchange