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Rural Tamil Nadu students present 64 technology projects at IIT-M research park
Rural Tamil Nadu students present 64 technology projects at IIT-M research park
Students from 13 rural training centres presented coding, robotics and digital projects in Chennai after a statewide competition drew 482 submissions.
Iniyasri, a student from Uthukottai in Thiruvallur district, was selected to visit IIT-Madras after missing out previously. She presented a Scratch project about the universe, demonstrating skills developed at a rural training centre operated by the Chennai chapter of Asha for Education.
Asha Chennai began the rural training-centre programme with two centres in 2022. It now reaches nearly 1,200 students and offers free six-month courses for pupils in Classes 6 through 12. Every centre starts with digital literacy, after which students may progress to programming, web development, robotics and artificial intelligence.
At Raman Hall in the IIT-M Research Park, 64 of the 482 submitted projects were chosen for presentation. Categories included digital literacy, Scratch, web development, physical computing, robotics, media editing, JavaScript animation and AI. Projects ranged from games and environmental themes to agriculture and food-delivery websites, cleaning robots, pollution detectors and smart-farming systems.
Eighteen judges included professionals from Amazon, Ford, Accenture, Cisco, Wipro and start-ups, along with faculty from Rajalakshmi Engineering College and BITS Pilani. Asha volunteer Rajaraman Krishnan said sustained interest had kept some students involved for years and led one to an internship. Judge Jayavel said participants understood their work and explained their ideas clearly.
A.Lavoie--SMC
