Three school students turn entrepreneurs, conduct robotics workshops to raise funds

Panaji: Three school students from Goa decided to combine outreach and raising funds into one event and they did it successfully by conducting a nominally paid robotics workshop ‘Explore the World of Robotics’.
The trio raised Rs 12,000 for the team via fees received from the participants in a fund-raising initiative for the FTC championship.
FTC is a four-day robotics championship held annually in April at which student robotics teams compete.
The team members, Venkatesh Dempo, Shounak Hede and Dhruv Desai (Team VSD) conducted their first workshop on December 4 in Panaji and their second workshop on December 8 at Margao. A total of 12 students each in the age group of 7-13 years attended the workshops. Each workshop was three hours long and participants were charged a nominal fee of Rs 500 each.
The workshop started with a brief introduction of the trainers and the purpose of the workshop and FTC. The participants were made aware of the basics of coding through a Powerpoint presentation. They were then taught to create a robot using Lego EV3 kit and then program the robot to perform a specific task.
“The aim of the workshops was to create awareness and enthusiasm amongst young participants about the world of robotics and to give them hands-on experience in assembling a robot and coding it,” team VSD said.
The participants displayed keen interest in learning and exploring new things. The workshops were well appreciated by young participants and their parents, they added.