It’s been a good 6 days since the record was set and some of our record holders were finally back at Kidobotikz after an exciting week at school. The record event had made these otherwise geeky mid-schoolers into celebrities back at school. Both teachers and classmates have been awed by the record set by these wunderkinds and many of these students have been heaped praises in front of the morning assembly. The ones that missed out on the praises this week probably have one due in the upcoming weeks.
I enter the lobby of Kidobotikz and find familiar faces all around. The guys who had taken part in the record last week are here to continue with their usual business of learning robotics. I see these guys hurriedly getting into their classes as they’re a couple of minutes late. I play spoilsport in their efforts by stopping a couple of them to get a few words out of them. That’s how I get to meet our focus for today- Surya and Shailesh.
Surya Yank Clement, a rather interesting name for an 8th grader, is the first of the two who is ready to forego a few minutes of his class. He is here to take part in his classes for the advanced level. He belongs to PSBB millennium and rather helps me spell out the word ‘millennium’ correctly as I scribble down on my notepad. Surya for all his silent demeanour is rather notorious back at Kidobotikz. He has already participated in KRG and says he made into 2 rounds. This young fellow is quite upbeat about his record, but he hasn’t told his teachers and peers that he was part of the world record event out of shyness. I ask him what he wants to be and i get the same unanimous answer i get here from every Kidobotikz student- Robotics engineer. For those of you who didn’t attend the event, Surya set a record within the world record. He was the first to complete the ATV Robot- his favourite kind of robot- at the event among all the 103 participants.
As I wave him off to his class, I talk our next friend Shailesh. Shailesh is a year younger to Surya and studies at Pon Vidyashram. He is also with Surya in the Advanced level and is rather excited about the record he has set. He says he’s been bragging about it all week at school. Says he’s quite excited about this record as he has desired to learn robotics from a very young age. He doesn’t wanna stop here. He wants to move onto win prizes at KRG in August and wants to pursue higher studies in robotics as well. He feels his ultimate desire is to build a line of Humanoid robots.
Robotics sure can change the face of the planet. If this World Record hasn’t brought us to the tipping point for robotics based education, it has definitely put us on the right path towards it.
Happy Roboting ! !
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