InVision

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The Future is Here. Are You Ready?

The workshop on Startup Edge was conducted by Ms. Karishma Ahuja, a soft skills trainer, influencer and entrepreneur and Mr. Nitin Rai Chaudhary, founder and CEO of Digital Series. Ms. Karishma Ahuja commenced the master class with an ice-breaking activity. The resource person briefed the trainees about the basic entrepreneurial and leadership skills that are vital for the successful growth as well as the running of a debuting business enterprise. The first task given to the trainees was to create an ‘Empathy map’ a way to characterise your target users in order to make effective design decisions. It aimed to help the participant's understand the needs of their consumers so they could efficiently recognize their target audience. The second task focused on how to create a ‘Mind map’, a diagram to visually organize information in one place thus making it easier to process. The mind map concentrated on the correct evaluation of the various strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats a new business organization might encounter. The last task comprised of a ‘Lean Chart Formation’, a flow chart that is often used for accurate analysis of the product being curated by the participants. The Lean Startup provides a scientific approach to creating and managing startups and get a desired product to customers' hands faster.

The latter part of the workshop was presided over by Mr. Nitin Rai Chaudhary. He trained the students in the basic concepts of marketing and market mechanism by creating a very interactive and informal environment for the teams to feel comfortable in. The words of wisdom by the expertise were enriching for the competing participants.

Artificial Intelligence Aiding Education

The participants of The Gamification Challenge were apprised by Ms. Meenakshi Uberoi about the power of Artificial Intelligence and its increasing role in education. She explained that AI is a system created by us to make machines more like humans and likened it to the new industrial revolution. While there are airs about security issues AI can be more beneficial to us than we think. AI is omnipresent and is slowly seeping into the Indian education system as well. Ms. Uberoi highlighted how Indian schools are using technology to simplify menial tasks. One of the participating schools is currently using facial recognition for students’ attendance. Through cognitive search, interpretation of documents both digital and written becomes easier. Conversational AI is contributing towards answering the questions of young inquisitive minds and setting reminders for better time management. Ms. Meenakshi encouraged the students to use various Microsoft tools like aischool.microsoft.com, onenote.com/learningtools, and Microsoft Azure to enhance their process of learning. AI can help students with ailments like colour-blindness and dyslexia to identify their disability and help them overcome the challenges they face due to them. It helps to provide each student with a personalized learning plan hence, incentivizing education. Ms. Garima Babbar from Adobe and Aditya Goyal, Director Gamification Challenge introduced a task to the participants. They were given exclusive access to the Adobe Spark license to create a story based on any theme. The session was indeed an informative one which educated the students on being future ready.

After a short lunch break, the participants set up their stalls in the basement movement area. There was a hub-hub as the children were working diligently to beautify their portals. The participants used info graphics and pre-prepared charts on the SDG goals to put forth their agenda for the upcoming challenges that they would tackle during the next two days.

Some Unusual Start-Ups

1. Potato Parcel: Send a message to anyone…..on a potato! The best alternative to a greeting card or flowers. Mail a potato, anonymous or not. Potato Parcel is an American company and website for delivering potatoes with personalized messages which are limited to 140 characters or one picture.

2. Died In House: Would it bother you to know that someone had died in your house? Would that information have impacted your decision to buy? Diedinhouse.com is the first of its kind web-based service that helps you find if anyone had died at any valid US address. It is especially popular among people who have experienced strange phenomena in their homes.

3. The Smashing Place: Have you ever intentionally broken a plate? When you’re stressed or angry and you just hurl the thing across the room and watch with a real sense of pleasure as it smashes against the wall. Feels pretty good? That’s the whole idea of The Smashing Place located in Tokyo that allows clients to come in, buy a plate or a cup of their choice and smash it against a concrete wall. They can swear, stomp their feet or do anything else they want to relieve stress.

4. The Something Store: A little more than eight years ago, the founders of the something store had an idea. If anything could be sold on the internet, why not sell “something”? The concept is bizarre, but it works. Customers place an order and pay $10, in return they receive something. The catch- they have no idea what they’ll receive until they get it.