Innovators, Mentors & Change!

A revolutionary innovation event called 'Tinkering Fest' is happening in many schools all across India. It is a brainchild of Atal Innovation Mission(AIM), NITI Aayog, Government of India.

Atal Tinkering Labs have been set up under AIM in more than 2000 schools that aim to foster creativity and technological innovation among students using design thinking(DT) approach. 

DT was adapted for business purposes by David M Kelley, a professor at Stanford University, who also founded the design consultancy IDEO in 1991. IDEO further popularized the DT concept for solving specific business problems. A design mindset is not problem-focused, it is solution focused and action oriented towards creating a preferred future. 

Students actively involved in the Atal Tinkering Lab(ATL) at Ryan International School(RIS), Delhi were given a summer assignment in which they had to think about and reflect upon the general problems in society that bother them. Many students used to visit the lab throughout the summer break in order to build their prototypes that were helping to solve those very problems.   

The fest at RIS happened on 28th and 29th June, 2018 with the sole objective of mentoring students, giving them qualitative feedback on their progress and also recognizing the hard work put in by them during their summer break.

As a Mentor Of Change, AIM, I was invited to deliver a workshop cum mentoring session on DT. I discussed, analyzed and performed hands on activities with all students on the 5 stages of design thinking- Empathise, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test. Students understood the what, why and how behind each of these critical stages involved in DT concept. They realized that DT is a human-centric problem solving approach that lays more emphasis on designing the prototype along with the client rather than for the client. Thus the client needs to be at the center of the entire process so that out-of-the-box innovative solutions could be put across for solving the very nuanced and specific challenges faced by the client. 

Some of the prototypes on display on the day of the fest were- Algae based Air Purifier, Smart blind stick for the elderly and disabled, Bluetooth light controller, Smart railways, Road Safety, Automated water filling system, Smart drip irrigation system etc. I was delighted to see so many working models that had the potential to contribute immensely to socio-economic development in India. I was blown away by the Algae based Air Purifier that is low cost, uses biological algae as a filter and has the potential to be used as an indoor purifier in highly polluted cities such as Delhi. Students involved in this project used different permutations and combinations of filters(HEPA, Carbon, Algae) to arrive at a special configuration that significantly reduces air pollution levels. Their spectacular work using the basic lab equipment of ATL, besides solving the critical societal problems, can be turned into a research paper as well. The role of a mentor becomes really crucial here. It is the Mentor's responsibility to show them the right path, motivate them, give them the exposure and create a platform where they can share their innovations and fruits of research with the entire country.