The RTC Impressions event showcased projects by students from Asha Chennai’s Rural Technology Centers (RTCs). Students presented projects in digital literacy, programming, web development, animation, physical computing, and media editing to a panel of judges at IITM Research Park, Chennai.

RTC Impressions – July 2024

(by Rajaraman Krishnan, volunteer Asha Chennai)

IITM Pravartak and Asha are currently operating nine Rural Technology Centres (RTCs) across Tamil Nadu—five in Thiruvallur district, three in Thoothukudi district and one at Thiruvanamalai. Two new RTCs have been inaugurated this year at Nalantiputhur, Thootukudi and Kilpennathur, Thiruvanamalai.

Project work is a key component of the courses offered at the RTCs. During the February to June semester, there were seven RTCs that were active. Students from all seven RTCs worked on in-depth projects aligned with their course material. These projects culminated in the RTC Impressions competition, where the students had the opportunity to showcase their work to a panel of distinguished judges. See the full photo album here.

You may view the report on the last RTC Impressions held in Feb 2024 and the one held in Feb 2023. These provide details on why we emphasize the project work and the importance of the RTC Impressions competition.

RTC Courses

We continued offering all the courses offered in the last term that included “Basic Digital Literacy”, “Basic Programming” and the advanced courses that are part of Code.org’s CS Discoveries course intended for 6th to 10th std students. These included “Web Development”, “Javascript Animations” and “Physical Computing”. The highlight of this year was a course that was entirely created by Asha’s own teachers and volunteers on ‘Media Editing”. This was initially conceived by volunteers who identified the broad scope of what could be taught and the tools that can be used to teach that. Then the RTC teachers themselves took that over and broke it into 30 lessons with an activity around each lesson which teaches the children the underlying concepts and introduces the children to the necessary tools. The effort paid off very well and the children produced wonderful projects and went far beyond just the tool we taught them.

Projects Submissions in 2024 – Semester 1

The following table captures the projects that were submitted v/s selected as part of the course work for this semester.

Here is another table that shows the total number of projects selected by all the RTCs in various courses over the terms from the start.

There are some general points to note here.

1. The number of projects in the advanced courses is steadily advancing. Till Term 4, the number of presentation projects from the Digital Literacy course accounted for more than 50% of the project submissions. That fell significantly in Term 5. Now the project submissions in the advanced courses account for close to 33% of all the projects. We expect this to continue growing.
2. After the first couple of terms, we asked the RTC teachers to restrict the number of students in a team to 3. That is being followed rigorously now. This has brought down the average size of the team to less than 2. We are comfortable with this number.

Note also that, after a couple of terms of not much growth in the number of RTCs, we are once again growing with 2 new RTCs added for Term 6.

RTC Impressions Feb 2024 – Organizing

The RTC Impressions this term also was held at IITM Research Park, Taramani. Since the arrangements worked well for last year, we repeated the same arrangements this year. The mini-auditorium was used for Digital Literacy and Scratch Programming competitions, while the hall opposite was used to for Web development, Animation, Media Editing and Physical Computing competitions.

Students from RTCs in Thriuvallur and Thoothukudi travelled to Chennai for the event. The Thoothukudi team had to journey overnight by bus, while the children from Thiruvallur started early morning and reached venue in vans. The Pravartak team organized lunch for all at the venue.

The following individuals graciously agreed to serve as judges for our event-

1. Shankar Subramanium – Entrepreneur and researcher, ex-Prof from IITM.
2. K Arun – Supply Chain Consultant and a programmer as a hobbyist
3. S. Andrews Arokiam – Senior Tech Architect at Ideas2IT
4. Abhishek Savarnya – Academic Coordinator at Asha, Pondicherry school
5. Rubini V.E. – Manager at VOIS – CSR and Sustainable Business
6. Sanjay Rahul – Software Engineer at QBrik
7. Purva Bhater – Runs an academic initiative named Krividya
8. Raja Chidambaran K – Senior Technical Architect at HCL-CISCO Systems
9. Srinivasa Gopal – 25 yrs of experience in IT and 5 yrs as a University teacher
10. Haritha B – Software Engineer at QBrik
11. Sritha S – Software Engineer at QBrik

RTC Impressions – The Competitions

Mr. Rajaraman welcomed the judges and provided an overview of the history of RTC Impressions, as well as the judging criteria. The judges were invited to volunteer for the events they were interested in judging, leading to the formation of four teams. Two teams were assigned to the mini-auditorium to judge the Digital Literacy (Presentation) competition, and the Scratch Programming projects. As the Digital Literacy presentations required a podium, it was set up accordingly, and the Scratch Programming judges conducted their evaluations in a separate area of the hall where students presented their projects.

A third team of judges assessed the Web Development and Animation projects, while another team evaluated the Physical Computing and Media Editing entries. These two teams were stationed in the hall opposite the mini-auditorium. Each judge was provided with scorecards, and the competitions commenced. Students presented their projects one by one, confidently answering the judges’ questions. In addition to evaluating the projects, the judges offered valuable feedback, suggesting areas for improvement and ways the students could enhance their work in the future.

The aim of evaluating the projects was not to be swayed solely by the quality of the presentations but to assess the students’ understanding of the tools and applications they were using. The judges posed questions to gauge this comprehension. While some students responded confidently, others struggled with certain aspects.

RTC Impressions – Prize Distribution

The much awaited Presentation session resumed with the judges and Asha Volunteers taking stage. The judges expressed their delight and appreciation at the variety and the quality of projects presented by the students. The prizes were announced and distributed amidst joy and cheer. The judges were presented by gifts made by all the RTCs.

The list of winners is given below-

RTC Impressions: In Their Words

One of the judges’ K Arun said,” Very impressed with the quality of the projects and subjects taught at RTC. Some students are fearless and presented very well. Others need more practice presenting; so they should also participate in the presentation events, and not just programming events. (The event) was very well organized with multiple computers for all judges to play around with the projects and test the code out.”

Mr. Abhishek Savarnya said, “It was really amazing to see children of different age groups showcase their skills with confidence. The ease with which they navigated through their presentations was praiseworthy. The interest imbibed through these projects is certainly going to motivate children to pursue digital skills to advanced levels. Kudos to the teachers and Asha Chennai for giving the children this platform.”

Mr. Raja Chidambaram said, “I found RTC Team is doing a fantabulous job in educating the children with exposure to latest technology. This is the third time I am participating in RTC as a judge. In every visit, I could see tremendous improvement in presentation and technical skills. Great job. Keep up the good work.”

Mr. Shankar Subramanium said, “Very impressed by the programs vision and the energy of Rajaraman and colleagues. The students put in a lot of effort and the teachers do a tremendous job training them. It is particularly heartwarming to see several students rehearsing.”