Mandi,6th July 2023:Indian Institute of Technology Mandisuccessfully concluded the second School Camp on Robotics and Artificial Intelligence (PRAYAS 2.0). In this fully residential program students learnt about the fundamentals of robotics and artificial intelligence to make a fully automated system early in their careers. One hundred students were selected from over 3000 students throughout the state of Uttar Pradesh were given an opportunity to be a part of this camp. Along with this, a total of 50 Uttar Pradesh Govt. School teachers and 50Industrial Training Institute (ITI) trainers, nominated under the Uttar Pradesh Skill Development Mission (UPSDM) were also a part of this camp.
Speaking about the second season of Prayas2.0, Dr. Tushar Jain, Head, Centre for Continuing Education, IIT Mandi, said,“Seeing the success of PRAYAS 1.0, we have taken a step ahead in PRAYAS 2.0. Firstly, the teachers and trainers are also invited to this camp. This will help them to include the learnings in their curriculum and adopt them in their teaching methodology to reach a wider student base in UP with new initiatives at the local level. Secondly, we have scaled up this program for over 200 participants. In PRAYAS 3.0, we plan to organize the robotics competition also and take this program to a new level.”
During the four-week camp, students had classes on Robotics and Artificial Intelligence where they learned to use various programming techniques, sensors, actuators, communication devices, and power devices to assemble various components to build a robot. The students built several robots using the customized kits provided to them and programmed their bots in Python to make them workable. Another interesting part of this year’s Summer Camp was the Mega G20-S20 Meet at IIT Mandi that gave the students an opportunity to showcase their projects to Shri Mukesh Agnihotri, Hon’ble Deputy Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh, during the Once Day Conclave on Skill India at IIT Mandi. Along with this, the students also participated in events such as World Environment Day, and International Yoga Day, among others.
Activities such as regular Yoga and aerobics classes, Bhagavad Geeta sessions, motivational documentaries, plantation, and cleaning drives, visit to tinkering labs, were also a part of the camp.
PRAYAS is a unique initiative by IIT Mandi to inspire the youth and promote sill development. It given them an around development experience of social , technical and human values skills.
The event concluded with a prize and certificate distribution ceremony at IIT Mandi campus. The young participants were also provided with a Take Home Robotics kit to help them further tinker with the technology.
