STEMland youths excel in CII PUDUCHERRY INNOVATION CONTEST 2022

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) works to create and sustain an environment conducive to the growth of the industry in India, partnering with industry and government alike through advisory and consultative processes. CII Puducherry Innovation Contest organized in partnership with Atal Incubation Centre, Pondicherry Engineering College Foundation is an ideal platform for the Students and Startupreneurs of Puducherry to showcase their innovative ideas, proof of concept, and prototypes. The event is structured through a 3-stage process that involves application shortlisting, online presentations, and a Pitch round. Boot camps, personal mentoring by Industrialists, and guidance by AIC are the salient features of the contest. Winners of the contest will get an opportunity to take their ideas to next level in the Atal Incubation Centre, PECF, and an opportunity to avail of seed funding.

The energetic youths of STEMland Vikinesh. R, Mugilan.M, and Punithavel.M from the Acharya College of Engineering and technology as the team participated in CII Puducherry Innovation Contest 2022 and presented their project “SALTWATER LAMP” and got selected for the finals of the Pitch round. They worked on this project to address the problems encountered by the fishermen and the public during disasters.

From left, Vikinesh. R, Mugilan.M, and Punithavel.M.

First, they conducted a survey to formulate the objective and worked on a solution – saltwater lamps. They used the STEMland tinkering lab to develop this project. This project paved the way to help fishermen during the night-time, deep sea fishing, and the public during disasters. The project employed salt water to produce electricity through which the lamp glows. The team presented the project to the C3streamland team to have a final rehearsal before presenting in the contest and took feedback for growth.

The project set out to be a benchmark and inspired many rural youths to use the STEMland tinkering lab for developing projects.

Sri Aurobindo 150th celebration talks with Aurovilians: Sanjeev

As part of the 150th Sri Aurobindo’s birth Anniversary, On the 24th of August 2022, Dr.Sanjeev Ranganathan had a live talk with the Aurovillians in Savitri Bhavan.

Dr. Sanjeev Ranganathan is the executive of the Isai Ambalam school, Sri Aurobindo International Institute of Educational Research (SAIIER), and RTL Academy. He received his Ph.D. in Electronics from Columbia University in New York City. He is motivated by his growth as a human being and supports the same in others.

Sanjeev is the recipient of the Lewis Winner award for best paper at ISSCC. He also volunteered for Asha for Education in various capacities and interacted with over 100 NGOs in India working on education. He has worked at Silicon Labs, NXP, ST-Ericsson, and Aura Semiconductor and has built chips used by over a billion people.

He addressed the Aurovillians with his inspiring talk by quoting his life instances with the guidance of Mother and Sri Aurobindo. While volunteering for Asha for Education he perceived Education’s purpose is not to just fit in something but also about standing out. It brought him to Auroville in 2000. He started working on alternative education. He focused on how are we going to support the next generation to do something unique.

He organized education conferences to have accelerated learning. He wanted to create a place for people to learn, experience, and contribute. He explored tribal villages and he did Vipassana, a 10-day silent meditative course that gave him a great feel about the right things to do. He also had a spiritual experience while doing his meditation and saw every being connected. All of us are connected. Once we stop judging people, life becomes easy and amazing.

Sanjeev is passionate about developing critical thinking skills with children and helping them learn and connect with their deepest selves. He believes that this can be achieved by deep meaningful educational experiences for both facilitators and children in the schools, at STEM Science Technology Engineering Mathematics centers, and Aura Auro Design, a technology business he coordinates. In time he created Aura Auro/STEM Land that allows youth to learn, grow, work, and teach as a research project and then a sub-unit of SAIIER.

He always followed the ideologies of Mother and Sri Aurobindo in his endeavors. At Auroville he was introduced to Radical Transformational Leadership which has tools, templates and distinctions used to create whole systems transformational solutions. These tools helped him explore what the root of his existence was and how he need to let it synthesize his life to let it manifest.

With the guidance of Mother and Sri Aurobindo, he continues to progress and help others progress in the beautiful journey of life.

SET Theory Game

A set is a collection of objects or groups of objects. These objects are often called elements or members of a set. For example, a set of all squares.

A set can be understood playfully using a set game that constitutes 3 components. The three components are

  • Colour
  • Shape
  • Size

It comprises:

Colour: Blue, yellow and green

Shape: Square, triangle, and circle

Size: small, medium, and large.

In total, there are 27 pieces which include

9 triangles (x3 colours, x3 shapes):

The three blue triangles are small, medium, and large.

The three yellow triangles are small, medium, and large.

The three green triangles are small, medium, and large.

9 squares (x3 colours, x3 shapes):

The three small blue squares, medium, and large.

The three small yellow squares, medium, and large.

The three small green squares, medium, and large.

9 circles (x3 colours, x3 shapes):

The three blue circles are small, medium, and large.

The three yellow circles are small, medium, and large.

The three green circles are small, medium, and large.

This set game can be used by children for a better understanding of set theory concepts.

Set Operations:

The four important set operations that can be performed using this set game are:

  • Union of sets
  • Intersection of sets
  • Complement of sets
  • Difference of sets

Union of sets:

The union of two sets is a set containing all elements that are in A or B (possibly both). The union of sets can be denoted using the symbol ‘U’. Symbolically, we can represent the union of A and B as A U B.

For example, A = Set of blue colour triangles and B = a Set of Green colour triangles.

Then the union will be all the triangles which are in blue and green.

 

The intersection of sets:

The intersection of two sets A and B is the set of all those elements which are common to both A and B. The intersection of sets can be denoted using the symbol ‘∩’. Symbolically, we can represent the intersection of A and B as A ∩ B.

For example, A = Set of blue colour objects and B = a Set of all triangles.

Then the intersection will be the triangles which are in blue.

 

Compliment of sets:

The complement of set A is defined as a set that contains the elements present in the universal set but not in set A. The complement of set A can be denoted using the symbol A’.

For example, A = Set of blue colour circles and U = Set of all circles

Then the complement of A, A’ will be circles which are in yellow and green.

Difference of sets:

The difference between sets A and B in this order is the set of elements which belong to A but not to B. Symbolically, we write A – B and read as “ A minus B”.

For example, A = Set of all green colour objects and B = Set of all squares.

Then the difference between A and B, A-B will be set of all green colour objects except squares.

Fundamental Properties of Set operations that can be observed:

The operations such as union and intersection in set theory obey the properties of associativity and commutativity. Also, the intersection of sets distributes over the union of sets.

Similarly, the set theory game can be used for understanding three sets and their operations.

BHARATHA TIRTHA II- International conference on Indian knowledge systems by IIT Kharagpur.

BHARATHA TIRTHA II- International conference on Indian knowledge systems was organized by IIT Kharagpur. Dr. Sanjeev Ranganathan, founder of STEMLAND was invited to present and he presented on the topic of Rajju ganit (string geometry, cord geometry).

He demonstrated briefly the concept of squaring the circle can be done using the Rajju ganit method. Using the rope, a circle, and a square of the same area can be constructed and observed.

There are two main new features:

(1) The cord replaces the entire compass box.

(2) Empirical methods are admitted in geometry contrary to the philosophy of formal math and using instead the philosophy of approximation.

Some other interesting topics that were presented at the conference were trigonometry in Ancient India and how that led to many discoveries and applications.

Jyotpatti: Trignometry in India

Trigonometry in India is called Jyotpatti.” Ja” means chord in a circle and “Jia” means string in a bow. Mathematicians used this to find the relation between the arc of a circle and the chord of a circle. The sine function is ubiquitous in all disciplines. It is very important to study the application part of sine and cosine functions.

Bhaskara’s metaphor for sine and cosine:

Bhaskar Acharya is a 12th-century astronomer and mathematician. He brought in the importance of science in astronomy, and the application of it is beautifully brought out with a nice simile.

He says that,

Just as fabric(pata)is made up of crisscrossed threads Likewise the spherics or science of astronomy is crisscrossed with sine and cosine functions.

Sines and cosines are everywhere in astronomy:

Interestingly, sines and cosines from the earliest times were formally a part of astronomy rather than a separate discipline of mathematics, it is because applications in astronomy fall all over the place.

The main phenomenal applications such as

  1. Ascensional differences between planets. (Spherical trigonometry)
  2. Epicyclic orbital corrections to planetary longitudes.
  3. Zenith distances and the length of the shadows.

Arcs and chords: The origins of trigonometry in India:

In the 17th century, a famous mathematician named Nityananda Sarvasisiddhantaraja explicitly links the advantage of looking at half chords.

Mathematicians paid more attention to what a chord concerning a given arc is, What is half of the chord of double the arc, and the right-angled triangle which is used for mathematics and computes various line segments concerning half of the chord made computations much easier for astronomers.

Technical terminology introduced bow and bow string:

 

The evolution of trigonometry in India:

Practitioners needed to compute:

  1. Half chords and other line segments in right triangles using the geometry of polygons inscribed in a circle.
  2. Tables of Rsines are computed for various values of R.
  3. Linear(or occasionally second-order) interpolation is used to determine non-tabulated values.

Addressing these led to brilliant discoveries and the results from the middle.

Mathematicians like Brahmagupta, Aryabhatta, and Varahamihra have given the tables of sine and their geometric dimensions of it.

 

 

 

A Session with Mr. Thiyaragaraja Kumar

An enthusiast researcher Mr. Thiyaragaraja Kumar visited STEM land on 20th June 2022 to exhibit the projects made by him and to inspire young minds.  He is an inspiring, energetic, curious person who makes projects, and teaches and guides children to invent projects. He plans to take project-based learning for the children.

The projects include a wireless charging unit, a quiz breaker, and sun-directed solar panel motor drive equipment. The wireless charging unit works based on the principle of mutual induction. The Quiz breaker model is based on relays. It finds its Industrial usage mainly in industry automation and helps in finding the valve tripping or if there is any fault. Using this model, faults in the high boiler plants can be easily found and repaired accordingly.

The sun-directed solar panel motor drive model was interesting and inspiring. It works based on the principle of movement of the sun.  this exhibit was presented at the Japan conference in 2015. According to the movement of the sun the solar cell panel moves which is driven by the motor using an LDR. This model gained more attention than other models.

He had a session with our team and explained the working methodology of the exhibits. He also enlightened the people on the topics of BCD, the Fibonacci series, Pascal’s triangle (Mahameru), Mehruprasta, Base10 calculations, Base16, and Base20 calculations.

He threw light on various number systems like the Roman number system, Greek number system, Mayon number system, and Egyptian number system. He also elucidated the shortcuts in simplification, Vedic math which is used in quantitative aptitude. 

The whole session was inciting, encouraging, and enlightening. Mr. Thiyagarajan enjoyed sharing his exhibits, got fascinated with the framework of STEM land, and wanted to support us in encouraging children to invent more projects.

Reflections from the team: 

  1. The session was inspiring. We learnt more facts and it was interesting too. 
  2. It motivated us to make more projects on automation.
  3. It was interesting. The BCD chart was good. The Sun directed solar panel equipment was stunning. It stirred up to do more research on it.

A visit to AUROVILLE INSTITUTE OF APPLIED TECHNOLOGY

On 13th May 2022, our C3Streamland team visited AIAT as a part of the BVOC program. The team was led by Dr. Sanjeev Ranganathan. AIAT is situated in Thricurtamburam, Koot Road.

AIAT, a non-profit Industrial Training Centre, aims to create prosperity in rural areas through vocational education and self-empowerment.

AIAT was established in 2004 with the support of the German Government and the non-profit organization VFAVR (Association for Development of the Region around Auroville).

AIAT focuses on technical education as a holistic approach based on learning by doing, enabling youth to become independent thinkers and to be able to provide solutions.

AIAT’s two campuses have a favourable ambience for learning, experimenting, and for creative activities.  The Irumbai campus focuses on segments of Computer Science, Electronic and Electric, and Civil; at the Palmyra campus, the focus of training is more on manufacturing and production.

The visit gave us exposure to the newly constructed Electronics lab, Electrical lab, and ICTSmartroom. The facilitators guided the team and gave a demonstration about each and every lab present.

The latest constructed Electrical lab is fully equipped with the prescribed tools and machine list. Different types of motors like series, shunt with AC and Dc supply were present. Generators, coupling units and several equipments like fridge, washing machine, solar bike and its working were also demonstrated.

In the manufacturing lab, The Fitter trades Turning, Milling, and Sheet Metal are present. Workshop halls for Fitter, equipped with 6 lathe machines, a universal milling machine, and CNCC training facilities.

The welding workshops practice various types of welding technologies such as Arc, MIG, TIG, and Gas welding machines.

Pic: Electrical lab, Electronics lab, Palmyra campus.

The Electronic Machines includes solar system maintenance. In electronics lab the wide range of projects like solar table lamp, Bluetooth car, Automatic dustbin were displayed. LED tv, WIFI router, and several equipments were illustrated.

Overall, this visit gave a versatile knowledge about the hands-on projects and experiments. The team had a wonderful time learning and observing by visiting the campus.

Vim Editor Session

Vim Editor Session

~SriBhavani and Bakyalakshmi

On 18th Jan 2022, we had a session on vim by HarshaVaradhan from AuraSemiconductors. In this blog, we share what we have learned about vim and how we use it.

Introduction:

Vim is a highly configurable text editor built to create and change any kind of text very efficiently. Vim Editor has its own configuration file called vimrc.  This can be customizable based on how we want to see GVIM

  • Vim has the Two modes of operation
    • Command Mode
    • Insert Mode

Command Mode:

To enter into the command mode press ESC.

There are two sub-modes in the command mode.

  1. Command Line Editing ?  “:” followed by the command

(eg) :q- to quit the editor window

  1. Command-line window ? Directly enter the command It will automatically execute once it got the valid sequence

(eg) dd – delete the current line

Insert Mode:

There are two ways to enter into insert mode.

  1. i ? Enter into the Insert mode at the point where the cursor present
  2. o ? Enter into the Insert mode with the new line, next to the Cursor line

Few commands to access vim editor in the Command line window:

  • dd ? Delete the cursor line. 
  • ndd ? Delete the n lines from the cursor position
  • gg ? Go to File Starting. 
  • GG ? Go to End of the File.
  • Ngg ? Go to nth line in the file.
  • yy ? Copy the Cursor line
  • Nyy ? Copy N lines from the cursor line
  • u ? undo the changes
  • ctrl+R ? Redo the last changes
  • ggVG ?  This will select all the file data
  • y ? copy the selected content
  • p ? paste copied content

 

Few commands to access vim editor in Command Line Editing

  • :w ? To save the file
  • :q! ? close the editor without saving the changes
  • :vsp ? Split the same vim editor file in two windows vertically
  • :sp ? Split the same vim editor file in two windows Horizontally
  • :tabnew ? Open newtab
  • :E ? To open the file tree
  • :se nu ? Show line numbers in the text editor
  • :se nonu ? Remove line numbers in the text editor

 

Search 

  • Type ” / “  to search a word or sentence in command mode

(e.g.) /cat – it will highlight all occurrence of word “cat” in the file

  • n ? show next occurrence from current to bottom
  • N ? Show search word occurrence from current to top

Search and replace: 

:%s/Old/New/gc Search for word “Old” and replace by “New”, ask confirmation before replace
:%s/old/NEW/gi Case insensitive, Search all possibilities of word “old” and replace by “NEW”
:%s/Old/New/gI Case sensitive, Search “Old” replace by “New”
:%s/Old/New/g Replace all occurrence of “Old” by “New”, without asking for confirmation 

 

Aurovidhiya seminar

 

The schools of Auroville and C3SL work on the philosophy of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother of Integral Education. The philosophy of Sri Aurobindo of the integral development of the child (Aurobindo, 1921, pp.1-8) emphasizes self-knowledge and assumes an important relevance in the recent National Education Policy that is based on his work and states that “knowledge is a deep-seated treasure and education helps in its manifestation as the perfection which is already within an individual.” The philosophy creates guiding principles for teachers and in how we engage with children. The three principles of true education by Sri Aurobindo are:

  • Nothing can be taught
  • The mind needs to be consulted in its growth
  • From near to far

The first principle can be linked to the constructivist theory that knowledge cannot be forced into a child’s mind. The role of a teacher is not to mould or hammer a child into the form desired by the adult. The teacher is a guide, or mentor that supports and encourages a child in the process of learning, enabling them to evolve towards perfection. Our engagement with children follows this principle.

The second principle indicates that the child needs to be consulted in his/her learning. This is done at C3SL as the elder children plan what they want to work on and how they want to organize themselves to do it with the broad ground rules of respecting themselves, others, and the materials. With younger children, this aspect was put into practice in the co-creation of challenges along with them.

The third principle is to work from near to far. To work from what is tangible and accessible to children to what is abstract to them. The children work on projects they care about in the environment they engage with and as they grow older move towards more abstract ideas. This paper will present projects both in the physical world and also in the abstract world.

Such an education addresses the purpose of education beyond fitting in and standing out and knowing oneself and one’s purpose in the world. The environment most suited for Integral Education is one where the child progressively learns about himself/herself and can make choices on their own. This environment is broadly referred to as ‘Free Progress’, where children are provided the freedom to make progress towards learning and understanding themselves deeply. At a practical level, this appears as freedom with responsibility in learning. While the responsibility of learning rests with the child, it is the teacher/facilitator who has a big role in creating a meaningful learning environment and this role is far larger than that of a traditional didactic teacher.

Values form the essential basis of actions and are required for the improvement of the social aspects of learning and for forming a learning community. However, ‘teaching values’ has its limitations, and incorporating them in society and in our work can be challenging. Self-awareness and personal transformation are necessary, but not sufficient for social transformation. We also work on RTL (Radical Transformational Leadership) with children by looking at system thinking and noticing patterns and how we can align our actions, and thoughts to the values we care about for a Conscious Full Spectrum Response capacity-building framework. This also provides us with a more holistic view of how we would like to access our work beyond academic achievement.

 

In this workshop, we will look first at the exploration of inner capacities through leadership tools and how it has the potential for transforming reactions of fear into conscious responses based on the highest possibility in both teachers and students. We will then engage with some technical aspects of developing the mental being through technology while holding these values and interacting in the kind of environment we would like to create for children with an introduction to some of the hands-on work we do.

‘The progress of the child guided by the soul and not subjected to habits, conventions, and preconceived ideas is illustrative of a system of free progress’ (The Mother, 1956). By the end of the workshop, we hold that we would have conveyed how at C3SL we develop the values of responsibility, equality, and the courage to create in children and you can take back some reflections on how you will do this with the children.

We presented in the mental domain.

Plan for the workshop:

Day 1:

Introduction to STEM land

Stewardship – Knowing who I am?

Stand(Universal value)  and Fear (socialized ):

 

Knowing who I am is a possibility

Seven segment display

Day 2:

Deep listening and conscious  full-spectrum response (CFSR)

 

Programming Scratch projects

 

 

 

 

 

Business Simulation

~Shimalini and Aravindh

Business Simulation is an experimental learning tool where participants learn by running a virtual business in an interactive, risk-free and hyper – realistic environment. It helps in practising and improvising business skill such as Business insights, market analysis, operations, decision making, problem-solving, communication and leadership.

The advantages of this tool are:

  • Puts theoretical concepts into practice
  • Increases decision-making skills
  • Boosts participants engagement 
  • Provides a practical environment for soft skill development
  • Allows us to overcome loss aversion

Last week we had the opportunity to do the business simulation with the overall team. It was a different experience where we learnt a lot of things. The interaction happened through zoom meetings. We got the chance to interact with the Quilt.ai team globally. Each round of competition indicated one production year. The simulation system consisted of four sections: Research and Development, Operations, Marketing and Finance. There were four countries to set up our manufacturing plants – the United States, Germany and China. The game consisted of six years to develop their company’s productivity, capital, market, etc. 

The Capsim business tool is beneficial to both participants and instructors. The initial training and assessment gave us basic knowledge to operate the game. In the first three rounds, we were randomly tuning the values to get good results, encountered lot of difficulties, like running out of funds and triggering emergency loans. After 3rd round, we had some clarification in the process improved our performance by analysing the feedback, comparing other team’s performance and made conscious decisions. 

The overall process was very new to us. There were experienced members in my team; I had the opportunity to interact, learn and hear their thoughts. Our part in this simulation was minimum. The key takeaway from this business tool is that it allowed us to realise that we should undertake calculated risks. We are looking forward to having a similar experience in the future.

Backyard cleanup for garden

Since STEMland is moving very next to our office, We as a team  decided to cleanup the area between the two buildings(AAD office and STEMland) which was full of bushes and thorns. We want to make sure that everyone using this place is safe as this place was full of insects ,termites, scorpions, snakes, etc..,

BEFORE:

 

 

 

 

 

We cleared all those unwanted plants/grasses and stones. We have planned to build a table at the center which we could use for meetings and the children can also use this open space for studying outside if they wish. We will be covering the whole space with green shade nets and plant some plants to make it look like a beautiful garden.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  AFTER:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Note:-This work is yet to be continued once the summer is over.