Asha Impressions was conducted at IITM showcasing projects from all our supported schools at our Sangamam, Cauvery, Poorna Vidhya and Thulasi projects.

Asha Impression 2025

Find more photos from the event here.

Asha Impressions is an annual competition conducted for students participating in Asha’s SPRINT program. Through this initiative, Asha supports over 170 primary and middle schools in Tamil Nadu and 15 schools in Uttar Pradesh.

In addition to providing subject-specific teachers in English, Math, and Science, Asha has progressively expanded its focus to include early computer education. Today, even students in 1st and 2nd standard are introduced to the fundamentals of computer usage. Students in 3^rd standard are encouraged to explore creativity through TuxPaint which is a child-friendly painting software.

By 4th and 5th standard, students are introduced to computer organization and begin working with OpenOffice, a free, open-source office suite that includes tools for documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. 6th to 8th standard students take their learning a step further by navigating the Internet and engaging in introductory progr

amming using Blockly and Scratch.

Recognizing that computer science is best learned through hands-on experience, Asha requires all students to submit their own projects at the end of the term. Students in 4th and 5th standard create presentations using OpenOffice Impress, while those in 7th and 8th standard develop creative projects using Scratch.

Inspiring Through Opportunity and Recognition

To provide a platform for the students to showcase their efforts, we organize Asha Impressions which acts as a motivator for students to do better.

It not only provides them with a stage where they compete for the first place before external judges, it also is an opportunity for them to travel outside their villages to locations like IIT Madras or the Amazon office! Students who visit these places once, are doubly motivated to do better and return the next year as well.

Project Work and Selection

The project work runs from January to April, serving as an important component of the students’ annual computer science curriculum. Projects submitted by the students go through two level filtration, once by the Asha teachers and then by Asha volunteers.

This year, 120 schools from our project locations in Thiruvallur, Thiruvannamalai, Thiruvarur, and Chennai submitted entries—contributing over 800 projects across OpenOffice Presentations, Scratch Programming, and Physical Computing!!

From the 800+ submissions, a total of 31 standout projects—comprising 16 in Presentation, 11 in Scratch Programming, and 4 in Physical Computing—were selected for the final showcase held at IIT Madras on 28 April, 2025.

Organizing the event

Last year, Asha Impressions event was held at the Amazon office in Chennai. Since Asha’s ACE Impressions was held at Amazon in March, 2025, hosting another event so close in time was not workable. So, we decided to host the Impressions at IIT Madras campus.

We approached IIT Madras hoping to get something like the Vanavani auditorium. IITM asked us to use the Central Lecture Theatre (CLT), which can seat about 400 people. This hall is often used for important events at the institute and has welcomed famous professors and even Nobel Prize winners. It was a proud moment for Asha to have our students present their work on such a respected stage.

We organized breakfast and lunch for all the teachers, staff and students at the Nilgiris mess. Required permissions for our entry of our vehicles and staff was taken in advance.

The Competitions

The completion at the Centre Lecture Hall was conducted in two halls. The main hall was assigned for the Presentation competition and the smaller hall opposite was reserved for the Scratch Programming and Physical computing competition. At the beginning of the session, the judges were briefed by Mr. Rajaraman Krishnan, Volunteer and Coordinator at Asha, about the grading parameters.

The Presentation competition was judged by Mr. Arjun Shankar, Mr. Renganathan Sundaram and Mr. Dhanashekar.

Students presented an interesting mix of projects about air pollution, games, Natural disasters, Scientists, Unavu Kalappadam, Wonders of the sky, Story, Division etc. The children presented in teams of 3 or 4 with each taking turns to present their subject. They freely interacted with the audience when required and answered questions posed by the judges with confidence and humor.

In the hall opposite, the Scratch Programming competition was evaluated by Ms. Srividhya Kailasam, Ms. Purva Bhattar, and Ms. Gomathy.

One by one, the students presented their projects, each bringing a unique concept and approach. The judges displayed keen curiosity, engaging with participants through insightful questions and challenges. They tasked several teams with real-time tweaks to refine their projects and demonstrate improvements on the spot. While some teams adapted impressively, others found the modifications a bit more difficult to implement. Nevertheless, the judges were thoroughly impressed by the diversity and creativity evident in the range of student submissions.

The Physical computing competition was judged by Mr. Ponkumar and Mr. Nagraj.

The students displayed projects on topics like Birds V/s towers, Drip irrigation, Smart room and water tank. The students also created and brought in models to explain the working of their projects. The judges were impressed with the innovation and insights they had to offer.

The participants broke for lunch around 1 PM, after which the competitions resumed. Scratch Programming and Physical Computing wrapped up earlier in the afternoon, while the Presentation segment continued until 3 PM. With all events concluded, the judges stepped aside to deliberate and finalize the winners. Following the tea break at 4 PM, everyone reconvened for the much-anticipated prize distribution ceremony.

PRIZE DISTRIBUTION

Mr. Rajaraman and Mr. Venkat addressed the students and spoke to them about the competition, congratulating everyone on their performances. The judges then declared the winners of each competition. The winners are as below-

Presentation Competition-

Programming Competition-

Physical Computing Competition-

Asha Impression Pearl – 2025

We generally hold a separate Impressions event for students at Thoothukudi. Since students from primary participate in the event, managing the travel and accommodation gets a little difficult even with Project coordinators and teachers pitching in. Instead of the students coming to Chennai, Asha volunteers and judges travel to Thoothukudi for the competition.

Project Work and Selection

Students from Thoothukudi submitted an impressive 359 projects in total. Of this, 224 were for Presentation, 134 for Programming and 1 for physical computing. Out of this, 17 projects in Presentation and 10 projects in Programming were selected for the final competition.

Organizing the event and Competitions

The event was held at Panchayat Union Primary School (PUPS) Koovachipatti. Asha has been supporting PUPS Koovachipatti since 2019.

The judges arrived in the morning and were welcomed by the Pearl coordinator, Mr. Murugan and Asha teachers. The competition was held in 2 classrooms, with Mr. Rajaraman, Ms. Sreetha, Mr. Shiva and Mr. Pavan judging the Presentation competition and Asha volunteers, Mr. Venkat, and Ms. Pushpaleela and QBrick’s Ms. Harita judging the Programming competition.

The competitions ended by evening after which the prize distribution session was organized and winners declared.

Winners of the Presentation Competition-

Winners of the Programming Competition