Build FIRST India: Build FIRST India, an initiative by Team Elev8 is the perfect example of how lockdown can be productively spent. This week-long series was an incredibly holistic experience for our entire team. We were honoured to get the opportunity to host:
- 1. Ms. Luan Heimlich - Founder Director FIRST Australia
- 2. Team Elev8 Alumni - Aarushi Majumder, FRC Dean’s list award winner & Adhyyan Sekhsaria, Silver medal IOI
- 3. Mr. Alex Francis Burchard - Program Delivery Partner, FRC Turkey
- 4. Mr. Karthik Kanagabapathy - Lead mentor, Simbiotics
- 5. Mr. Allan Baytun - Lead Mentor, Raid Zero
- 6. Dr. Yoji Shimizu - Master of Ceremonies, Mentor for Team 1816 The Green Machine
- 7. Ms. Sonali Thite - Automation Product Lead, Flipkart and Mr. N Balamurugan
- 8. Mr. R. Ramanan - Mission Director for the Atal Innovation Mission (AIM)
The lineup of 8 speakers was extraordinary on paper, but interacting with them in real-time was awe-inspiring to another degree. Hearing mentors and leaders who have achieved so much offer their valuable contributions to us was so helpful and certainly encouraged us to leap even further towards our outreach goals. With our viewer count averaging 85-100 people per session, we were able to reach out to many young and aspiring bright minds and thinkers and inspire
Date with Elev8: Date with Elev8 is an ongoing series of webinars where we invited speakers them, showing them the wonders of STEM and of innovation.
from various backgrounds such as marketing and engineering to, firstly, build skills and more importantly, provide the students with exposure to various relevant fields and subsequently, inspiration. So far, we have hosted Ms. Surbhi Bhatia, CEO of the Mom Store, who spoke to us about social media marketing. And Padhma Vibhushan nuclear physicist Dr. Anil Kakodkar who outlined his experiences in STEM and ruminated about a future steeped in technology.
NGO Mentoring:
Teaching is an experience like no other. We were thrilled when we got the opportunity to train 10 mentors from 6 different NGOs. While this was an incredibly daunting task, we gave it our all! We witnessed immense excitement and were really engaged! Finally at the end of 8 weeks, watching them coming up with their own designs, curriculums and ideas restored our faith in our hard work.
Robotics Deconstructed: Through this program we were able to start 9 new FTC/FRC teams. We had 14 student mentors from Team Elev8 teaching the WPI Programming Course, the Java Fundamentals course and the Computer Aided Design (CAD) course. We were pleased to see the enthusiasm of the students and were motivated further by the large number of participants. With over 130 participants in the programming courses and over 90 participants in the CAD course we conducted 230+ sessions. Overall, we were able to reach out to 1000+ parents, mentors and students over 11 webinars!
- 1. WPI deconstructed: Students learned how to create advanced robot control functions using the WPI Software Library.
- 2. Java Fundamentals: We taught students Object Oriented programming in Java, and how to use their skills to make programs with real world applications.
- 3. CAD Deconstructed: We taught the students how to go about using CAD software Fusion 360 to conceptualize, design, implement, and analyse the various parts and mechanisms of industrial grade robots. Starting from scratch, at the end of the course students were able to convert 2D sketches to 3D objects, create joints, apply appearances to models and change their materials, and use simulations to test out designs. Whether students were interested in engineering, biotechnology, automobile design or even computer graphics, CAD allowed them to channel their interests and creativity effectively.
She Empowers STEM:
We at Team Elev8 strive to provide equal opportunities to everyone. With inclusiveness at the heart of our outreach model, we started our She Empowers STEM program. We conducted robotics workshops with 80+ girls from grades 5-9 in our school. We started an all-girls FTC team with passionate and highly driven girls. We held a webinar to empower the women of tomorrow. Lastly, we also conducted a webinar for the under-privileged girls to create awareness about the limitless opportunities.
A Laptop Story: A laptop story is an initiative started by an alumni of Team Elev8. The pandemic has exposed the educational divide with students from underserved communities at the risk of being left behind. We are Team Elev8 are partnering with A Laptop Story to provide devices to students form NGOs. We are also volunteering at these NGOs to teach the students.
