Month: January 2023

Sanjay & Pratap

This is the second post in the series of building more practical circuit applications that children can use in their daily life and show their friends and family. The first post was here, Cycle Safety light – C3STREAM Land Designs (auraauro.com)

The cycle safety light in the previous post relied on a 9-V battery which runs out or has to be recharged. Ashwin, a friend of Ajay (who built the previous application) decided to go one better than his friend and get rid of the battery altogether. To this end, he relied on a DC motor to generate the power to light up an LED.

The fact that a DC motor when mechanically rotated generates a voltage was known to the kids. They took advantage of this fact to use the rotation of the bicycle wheel on a vertical axis to rotate a DC motor on a horizontal axis. See the pictures to see how he accomplished this. He fixed a wheel of the required diameter to the DC motor axle. The diameter is such that it touches the bicycle wheel at a single point along both their circumferences. Thus, when the bicycle wheel rotates, it rotates the DC motor as well. Pretty ingenious isn’t it? God, these kids are creative.

Take a look at the pictures and the video which is the final demonstration. Pratap and I helped the kids a bit, mostly with materials and some muscle with lifting the bike, rotating the wheel, and holding the torch lights. But this was the kids’ brainchild through and through. He and I were just the laborer and the quartermaster. I think what we have here is a local and practical implementation of what the government is trying to achieve via the Atal Tinkering Labs.

At the end of the day, my heart was filled with bursting. There is so much joy in these things. Why did it take me so long to discover this sort of Joy?

~Poovizhi, Meganathan, Durai, Sandhiya

Annual reflection Insights

Saranya had posted some insights from having reviewed our year with the annual reflection and review form. Once all the seniors had filled out the forms we made the review a workshop of sorts where Sanjeev had a conversation with one of us to help others understand the questions and the different lenses to look at the last year. Over three weeks we reviewed the last year and came up with what we would like to accomplish this year. We worked across teams to break silos of only working with the same people everyday. Here are some insights we had on doing our reviews.

Sanjay Tumati:

I do different activities including work and teaching. When I meditate, I am able to switch activities and interruptions easily. When I spend time on an activity we can either get exhausted or go into a zone where we get better results. When we take breaks it can break the flow, but meditation can bring us back to where we were or sometimes even come up with a better solution.

Pratap

I learnt each question is checking my integrity. For things I did well I don’t rejoice and for things I was out of integrity I don’t feel sad. I just noticed. This exercise helps me to see my gaps and I work on my gaps. It helps me to see where and how I can take the organization forward.

Glasika

I have a feeling of accomplishment by noticing what I did last year. I also noticed the missing parts. In courage to create, I relooked at it and found that the missing part was myself and being creative about self care. It reminded me that when I am uncomfortable, I can use it as my growth space. The review gave me granularity so that I am able to see things as they are to do something rather than leaving it as a general feeling.

Rajesh

I was able to differentiate my last year into two halves. The first one was before I joined the Shifu program and this was not progressive and the other  whenI joined BNB Shifu program and I found myself progressive. When I was progressive, I was able to learn in a way that it will last. I have learnt to see the gaps and work on it.

Arun

It helped me to notice and see how I progressed in last year. RTL helped to still myself and notice rather than judge. I learned not to give up easily. I need to work on my concentrated mind. When I see my progress I do more. When I see myself in others I feel inspired.

Sivaraman

I found myself whole and it helped me to find gaps. I plan to work on my gaps to observe if I am moving towards my goal in life.

Meganathan

My name is Meganathan and I deeply care about courage, love and equality for myself and others. After doing the annual review I feel accomplished, moving forward in my growth to next step and understand about the real time math problems and worked with children to use materials for learning.

Duraisamy

I feel accomplished that I supported children in understanding mathematical concepts in day-to-day life. And children can apply mathematics in Real-time problems. We designed a new curriculum for the B. Voc computer programming and machine learning program, partnering with AIAT. These syllabuses will meet the industrial requirements to full fill their needs. I feel myself being part of the stem land to support multiple youths and children for their growth. I look forward to the new opportunity for everyone.

Sandhiya

Only when I revisited my last year came to know that I have learnt many things. I feel accomplished that I was able to update the school software after 3 years for both Udavi and Isai ambalam. I was able to support my team members at work. I was able to mentor two Shifuians. I am able to handle more than 3 clients in a day in testing. I found it as a new experience to handle my work as well as take care of my daughter and I learnt that I am able to do both.

~ Durai, Kugan

The super hexagon is a special diagram that helps the children to remember all the trigonometric identities and trigonometric functions visually [also requires memory].

How to draw the super hexogen

Draw the hexagon and we need to join all the opposite vertices and place the value 1 in the center of the hexagon.

Write the tan on the left vertex of the hexagon and use the quotient to identify the tangent ongoing clockwise, starting with tan = sin/cos.

Then add:

• cot (which is cotangent) on the opposite
  side of the hexagon to tan
• csc (which is cosecant) next, and
• sec (which is secant) last

Fill the reciprocal identities on the opposite side. Now the super magic hexagon is ready

Create Quotient identities

To understand the first set of formulae will let try around the hexagon in the clockwise direction, for the next set of directions will let try around the hexagon in the anti-clockwise direction.

Now we take any three continuing functions in the hexagon like  . If the product of the first and the third functions result in the function between them

Now focus on the function diagonally opposite vertices. They are reciprocal of each other

Focus the hexagon we found the six triangles. Focus only three triangle which s shadow in the image. Here we go clockwise within each one of the triangles starting with top left position. Square of the sum top two point of the triangle is equal to square off the bottom point of the triangle.

Anti-clock wise Here we go anti-clockwise within each one of the triangles starting with top left position. Square of the subtraction top two point of the triangle is equal to square off the bottom point of the triangle

This year I teach mathematics for 8^th grade children in Udavi at STEM land. I wanted to teach Algebra for children and I have created a lesson plan for the same. Sanjeev gave feedback on it and has made a video on motivation algebraic identity and suggested them to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d53Mgu-NLBw&t=222s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTvJ-69xJWI&t=106s

From that video I have learnt to connect the previous concepts while introducing a new concept to children. I learnt to connect the dots between algebraic identities and the short cuts we use to find square of two-digit number and Vedic mathematics method.

When I thought my learning to children, they were happy to unbox the magic behind the short cut method of finding square root of two-digit numbers and started to see the logic. They started to ask for more practice questions and were able to see the connection.

~Sanjay Tumati

For some time, I was sceptical about the value of blogs and the value of photos and posting on Blogs as social media such as WhatsApp. I did not think that they actually inspired anyone and I never bothered much about photos and blogs. To be sure, I maintained a journal for myself from time to time and found it useful, but never shared these with others. Usually it was because I thought others would not be interested but sometimes I am not comfortable sharing.

At C3SLD we organize a half day Vipassana session for about 4 hours at our Udavi campus every Sunday. We would receive around 6-7 meditators some of whom meditate for only part of the four hours. And this is largely the case week after week for months.

Last week, Sanjeev suggested taking a group photo and posting it on the group to motivate others to attend. I was sceptical anything would change. However, we went ahead and did it anyway à Took a group photo and posted it on the group. The very next week, the turnout doubled to 15 to the extent that we ran out of space for men. This was happening right before my eyes. These are real world results. I can’t argue with results and what my eyes see.

Now I am more optimistic about the impact of blogs and sharing photos and reflections. I took photos with more enthusiasm and also posted them on the group with some comments to motivate others to join us. And I have resolved also to post blogs more often. Sanjeev says that people do read our blogs for pointers and it has indeed inspired others to try something new. It was not that I did not believe Sanjeev, just that I did not pay it too much heed based on my back ground conversations and pre conceived notions. However, this experience has definitely been an eye-opener. I may still not post out of laziness, but not because I feel it is ineffective.

Pratap

Looking at the last year being part of C3STREAM Land Designs (C3SLD). I started taking responsibility for my growth and the team’s growth. I have inquired into the congruence of my values with what I am doing at C3STREAM Land Designs. Being on time is my choice and a way for me to embody my commitment and dedication to work. I find that it sets behavioral standards and workplace values are aligned with my values. Even though we meet at 8:00 a.m. for meditation (and 7:45 a.m. for learning sessions) I inspire myself to come in around 7 to 7:15 a.m. to work to strengthen my resolve to be reliable and trustworthy. Consistently coming early to work and if needed staying late from the office helps me ensure that I meet important deadlines. Coming early, I have enough time and energy to accomplish my daily tasks eg: taking a class in Isai Ambalam, and doing admin stuff for the office early in the day, which allows me to work in VLSI layout work for Aura the company that supports me to C3STREAM Land Designs.

Coming early gives me enough time and energy to accomplish my independent tasks before tasks requiring engagement with the team need to be done. It helps me meet deadlines without rushing through tasks and plan with the larger picture of my personal development in mind.

Last year when I started coming early it helped me improve my work relationships and teamwork. It showed respect for others and that I valued their time when we met together. Consistently being on time required me to develop my time-management skills, as scheduling my morning arrival on time for work often involves planning and scheduling things at home with my wife and child. I also extend being on time in the morning to all tasks and activities and I see these are valuable in my continuous growth and my career. For example, the early morning also gives me time to reflect, and beyond technical work helped me accomplish publishing an article and posting and documenting 25 blogs this year.

These are my contributions in the last year growing in all aspects. I started to take initiative to organize planning and reflections on school work. I also created a Signal group to support this initiative. The notes are not only reflective of the teacher but also allowed Sanjeev to be able to provide feedback and make videos that supported the learning of teachers. When I saw Vahan cube was missing in STEM land, I laminated 3 sets for STEM land. Mathew from AVI-USA wanted to document good initiatives in Auroville and asked to make a video on C3SLD and STEM Land. This involved all the initiatives of C3SLD be it volunteering in different schools or our partnership with corporates that supports and sustain us. Serina from Aurore Eye Films, Auroville made the video and I helped her capture all our initiatives. I went to the conference in Aurovidhya where we did an RTL (Radical Transformational Leadership) session and an electronics session for the teachers. I organized the sleepovers at Isai Ambalam and did many projects with children which I documented in blogs and be in integrity as creating a new narrative for learning is one of our ground rules. The projects we did were EBD school ground, LED sessions with 6th grade, Rashi project, and school ground. I was accountable for handling the website and I posted all the blogs that I received from everyone in the office. I made some changes to the website so that the lessons that the teachers created can be accessed by everyone. I also provided technical support to the Isai Ambalam school when the internet was not working, I debugged it.

For the Shifuians, I took RTL tools and processed TED talks. I see a change in myself as I was uncomfortable while doing this but I understood that it is for my growth. I also worked on the accountability of the office space be it by installing an air conditioner or following up for faster internet. This year I published an article in the teachers plus magazine. I see that I broke my pattern of not publishing anything to something. While I don’t have the authority to ask others to do something as it creates resistance between me and others, but I see that I am the change I wish to see. I use RTL and Vippasana which help me to overcome and move forward and work from my fullest potential.

This year I was training and supporting Santhosh, Choudhary, Elam, and Narmada to do the floor plan layout. For Aura, I worked to deliver 4 products. I held integrity to deliver the layout projects that I worked on time. I am happy being part of C3SL where I am growing in inner capacity, competency, and skill. I feel grateful for being part of building the ground in Isai Ambalam which is used by so many children and publishing an article. I am grateful for posting 25 blogs in the last year and organizing events like Karthigai and Christmas celebrations. I am grateful that I am confident and learned to work on real projects and I delivered what I intended and was able to work independently.  Looking at the last year I learned to be more responsible and make hard choices based on what I want to accomplish and grateful for whatever I delivered. I learned that I should not do things so that people appreciate them but so it benefits others’ growth. I also feel grateful to be part of the RTL book reading club which helps me have the clarity to deliver sessions on RTL. I feel grateful for being able to support sleepovers for one year and that I learned how to write blogs as new narratives. I am grateful that last year Aura recognized our contributions and enrolled us in shares and I was recognized as a senior person at work based on experience and contributions.

What I learned about myself is how can I inspire myself in all the things that I do. I learned that I need to take only the positive things from other and ignore negative things from other. I learned that I need to hold integrity so that others get inspired by me. Practicing RTL and triad every week give a reflection on my accomplishments. Practicing Vipassana helps me to see things as they are and to work effectively, and efficiently with delivering outputs. When I am overloaded, I do meditation and then start my work. I am delivering what I plan to deliver and holding integrity.

This year I can see my growth in all aspects. The days in the last year were busy where deadlines had to meet or something completed urgently while working during tape out. These days were stressful to the point where there were times, I did have to stay back to get the work done. This in some ways reminded me a lot of my late-night study sessions at college and how even in the workplace, this does not change. As I reflect I see that I ended up learning a lot more than I thought I would be able to in the last year.

Vasanth Reflection:

My name is Vasantharaj, I stand for equity and full potential for myself and for others. When I reflect back on the last year I am able to see my growth in both technical aspects and inner being. Our office C3SLD started a new initiative of subsidizing new e-cycles for employees this year. I had been using the e-cycles and wanted to transition to a regular cycle. Many people suggested that it won’t suit me. But, I made the choice and used the subsidy for a better geared cycle. I have been continuously using the cycle for a year now. It has been
excellent for my health and my determination to not take the convenient way out. Now it has become my habit, I avoid using motor bikes and like to use the cycle.

From a technical perspective I worked on layout for about 8 months this year
delivering 4 products\.I learnt skill programming and did the setup of one of the project bindkeys. Viren invited us to visit Bangalore Aura for one and half month of training. It was a good opportunity for me to improve speed in layout and while we were there I also learned about micro component soldering. In October, I made a choice with the help of Sanjeev and Sanjay to move to the Verification team of analog modeling. It provided new dimensions of
earning in different aspects. I started to look into some details of the circuits, model them using verilog modules and look at mixed mode simulation. I started documenting my learning process in the verification team that will be useful for upcoming team members I supported Choudary and other people in the Shifu program learn layout skills and work at their full potential. This became new learning for me and also it refreshed some layout concepts.
I started my journey as a PC in the RTL workshop. It provided me to explore the tool deeper and give chances to deliver it, and get feedback from others. I started supporting 2 children in the SAC program. That feeling is my greatest initiative this year. This year I worked with children on a Monsoon project, garden EBD and electronics.