The Higher Education Review

Modern robotics continues to surprise most of us, especially those who couldn't have imagined the existence of AI bots like Sofia or Siri or Alexa or even Google Assistant for that matter. But thanks to tech firms like Google, Apple, Amazon, and others, today robotics has made its place. With the constant transformation in the STEM field, jobs are changing, industries are evolving, and for all we know, it is more important than ever before that the students are prepared for the future. Robotics gathers together many disciplines from the STEM domain and introducing Robotics learning at an early age could provide students with a professional head start in a STEM-oriented job market while increasing their ability to be creative and innovative at the same time. Recognizing this early on, Arijit Mallick, an engineering graduate himself, established Lydnow Robotics - a technology education-based company which encourages experiential learning, innovation, and sustainability.

A Founder's Voyage to Robotics Learning
During his early days into engineering, like any other student, Arijit aspired for a really good career in engineering that involved practical learning with tools and instruments. However, to his utter surprise, this technical stream was more of theoretical learning and less of practical training. Arijit Mallick, Founder, Lydnow Robotics, says, "Engineering colleges do offer practical training, but that is only syllabus specific." With his unending, uncompromised desire to learn practically, Arijit would attend a lot of lectures and workshops at different colleges, but one such event that transformed his life was the National and International Level Competitions taking place at IIT Mumbai and IIT Chennai.

Soon, Arijit began attending such tech-fests and that is when he was introduced to the magnificent world of robotics and automation. In no time he started making field robots. "I was learning a lot more than what I learnt in an entire year of my college life. After returning from the competitions, I created some excitement in my college about modern technology and its application, I asked my batch mates and juniors to participate, but again not many showed interest. Most of them were keen on attending lectures, completing assignments, and getting good grades. I don't blame them. We all aspired for jobs after completing graduation. It is the end result of the Indian education system that is preparing students for mundane jobs or a certain piece of technology that can make them inventors," says Arijit.

Motivated towards his objectives, Arijit completed his engineering and pursued his interest by establishing Lydnow Robotics in 2011. Today, the institute is a renowned name offering practical exposure to the school students that familiarizes them with the technology. "These students completed the workshop and said that they wanted to learn more, which encouraged me. I started designing an elaborate Robotics' curriculum to train students with the three essential topics of Robotics - Electronics,

Mechanics and Programming. I tried and tested the design over the next four years and achieved success. Eventually, I registered the Robotics vertical of Lydnow, now recognized as Lydnow Robotics," explains Arijit.

Offering a Range of Carefully Crafted Courses
With its skilled team of 13, Lydnow Robotics works with technologies like Robotics, 3D Printing, Drones, Programming in Java and Python. Under its three Robotics vertical, the institute offers three courses namely - Robocurious, Robofunda and Robopro with which Lydnow Robotics is honing practical skills of the students perfectly. While Robocurious is a 12 hours software foundation course where the students familiarize with Robotics, the long-term training program starts with Robofunda, which is a 40 hours program that focuses on the essential topics of electronics, and Robopro is the last hurdle which is divided into 3 segments ­ Robopro 1, a 50 hours' program that emphasizes on essentials of mechanics; Robopro 2, a 40 hour programme that trains the students on in-depth programming and the last level Robopro 3 is where a team of students is selected on the basis of performance and interest which is then trained for Robotics competitions in engineering colleges from all over the country.

Upon learning the courses at Lydnow Robotics, students attain skills to build their own mobile applications, animations, and artwork by programming. Lydnow Robotics does not provide them any readymade kits, instead, they train their students to create and build robots on their own. Presently, Lydnow Robotics is training students in the age group of 10 to 16, while they have plans to launch programs for students of age between 17 and 20 years. "We will train the students of higher age group with industrial automation and IoT, this will fill the gap between Theoretical and rote learning and practical skills amongst the students," says Arijit.

Lydnow Robotics trainers train the students through anecdotes and stories. It creates an everlasting memory in the students' mind. They grasp the teaching better. Lydnow Robotics has tie-ups with schools where trainers facilitate workshops for typically around 30 to 45 hours every year. They also have their own private workshops for Robotics, 3D Printing, and Drones which they conduct weekly after school hours, and majorly over the weekends. "For the past 10 years, students who participated in this program got top 10 ranks at IIT ­ Mumbai Tech Fest. Last year, a team of middle schoolers won the competition at IIT ­ Mumbai, competing with 150 engineering colleges," says Arijit.

Speaking about the future plans, Arijit says, "I want to keep developing the course curriculum of Lydnow Robotics. I want to innovate new products in Automation and IoT." It's a mission now for him and Lydnow Robotics will help him achieve his objectives. Arijit is also looking forward to spreading his operation across 20 different cities in the next 5-6 years while increasing the number of established centres from four centers across Pune.

'Words of The Thriving Lydnowians'
Pooja Vegesna - Pooja completed 5 levels of Robotics and Automation training with Lydnow Robotics. She is currently in her 10th grade. She has represented Lydnow Robotics at IIT Techfest 2018 where her team was one of the Finalists at Cozmo Clench competition. She says, "I really appreciate the insight and exposure I received from Lydnow

Robotics. The trainers were always there for us whenever we needed them and helped us in thinking creatively. Thanks to Arijit sir and all the trainers who patiently helped me and guided me to build projects."

Zyfn Kothavala - Zyfn completed 5 levels of Robotics and Automation training with Lydnow Robotics. He is currently in his 9th grade and has represented Lydnow Robotics at IIT Techfest 2018 where his team won Cozmo Clench competition, competing with teams from 150+ engineering colleges. He says, "I enjoy learning at Lydnow Robotics a lot. I have made some friends there, and continue to make new ones. Lydnow Robotics has taken me from being an 11-year-old kid who couldn't tell head from the tail in robotics, to one who is confident in undertaking semi-complex projects on his own. The X-Factor at Lydnow Robotics is that one is taught from the ground up, instead of simply being given a kit and instruction manual to do 'Advanced Robotics'."

Aryan Chaubal - Aryan completed 5 levels of Robotics and Automation training with Lydnow Robotics. He is currently in his 9th grade and has represented Lydnow Robotics at IIT Techfest 2015 and 2018 where his team won Cozmo Clench competition, competing with teams from 150+ engineering colleges. He says, "Lyndnow Robotics is a great institution and is doing a great job at taking care of its students, making sure they succeed and pursue their dreams. Today, it is a very well-structured and standardized system of courses but me being an old student still admire the rawness that the course used to have, where we didn't know what to do but we would team up and figure things out to complete our design tasks."

Dhruv Chakraborty - Dhruv attended Lydnow Robotics in 2015. He is currently pursuing his graduation studies from University of California, Los Angeles. He says, "I was a student at Lydnow Robotics for a couple of years intermittently during high school. I am currently a student of mathematics at the University of California, Los Angeles and I believe my experience at Lydnow played a major role in helping me get here. In particular, I believe Arijit Sir played a huge role in not only teaching me robotics and other technical skills but also helping me develop as a person and a team player. I highly recommend joining Lydnow, for I believe working in groups and learning how to manage projects are crucial life skills that I wouldn't have otherwise learned."

Yuktha Bhadane ­- Yuktha is currently pursuing her undergraduate program at the University of London for BSc. Economics. She says, "I started my classes at Lydnow Robotics during my summer vacations, right after 8th grade. I was curious to know how all the terms I learnt in school like electricity, conductors and more actually worked. I loved that I could practically test whatever I was taught which kindled my curiosity. I was taught to question the mechanism of objects around me. Although academically, I chose the Commerce Stream; my ability to look for creative solutions always helped me."