Educate 25000 Children through Volunteers in India

35 children from six shelter homes (orphanages) across Chennai participated in a robotics expo. The children participated in a workshop by volunteers from Bhumi and Dwengo (Belgium) over two weeks and made their own robots (list below):

1. Scorpion - A robot that runs on all terrains
2. Garbage picker – An automated robot that picks up garbage in its way and drops it at a predefined point
3. Buggy – A four legged bug robot that walks
4. Light controlled waste dump robot – A semi–automated garbage cleaner that picks up and drops garbage depending upon the light
5. Light Eater – A simple light following robot
6. The Phoenix – A robot that flaps the wings at a speed depending upon the light intensity
7. Line Tracer – A robot that follows a black line on the floor
8. Collision avoiding art-bots – A robot that traces its path on white paper and forms patterns by avoiding obstacles in the course

The workshop on Robotics was conducted for under-privileged children to improve their interest in the STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). The project is a winner of Google Rise.

Two volunteers of Dwengo travelled all the way from Belgium especially for this three-weekend workshop; and have trained ten Bhumi volunteers who have in turn helped the children learn robotics concepts and make working models. At the grand finale on Sunday Jan 25, 2015, the children displayed their work at Ramakrishna Mission Students Home, Chennai. 

“The children, although with very little exposure to the computer, could comprehend the concepts of binary numbers, loops, shortest path algorithms and finite state machines with minimal effort. The volunteers from Dwengo put in commendable effort to help children learn these concepts in a fun and interactive way.” says Nithin Krishna, a Bhumi volunteer.

Links:

• Click to view photos from the robotics expo
• Volunteer Account of the Robotics Workshop