The student team, Yukthi, from the School of Engineering, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Chennai campus, won in the finals of Toycathon 2021, an inter-ministerial initiative organized by the Ministry of Education’s Innovation Cell, in coordination with the All India Council for Technical Education, Ministry of Women and Child Development, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Ministry of MSME, Ministry of Textiles, and Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. This was devised under the ‘Aatma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan’ initiated by our Hon’ble Prime Minister, Sri. Narendra Modi, to decrease the import of foreign toys, which constitutes 75%. It was conceived to challenge India’s ingenious youngsters to design/develop Toys and Games based on “Bharatiya civilization, history, culture, mythology and ethos.”
Toycathon 2021 unfolded a grand youth conclave. Around 1.2 lakh participants from across India registered for the event generating 17000 ideas. Among these, 10 ideas were registered by the School of Engineering, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Chennai Campus. Only 1567 ideas were selected for the Grand Finale that was organized from June 22-24, 2021. Among these 1567 teams, the following 5 teams from Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Chennai campus, took part.
All the four teams in the Digital category presented their games in the three-day Grand Finale round. In the first two days, the teams presented their digital game in the Mentoring round in the morning with the evaluation being done in the evenings. Of the 1567 teams, 275 were selected for the Power Judging round on the third day. The team led by R. Amrita Laasya was qualified.
After the Power Judging round on June 24, the results were declared on June 25. The team Yukthi was declared as one of the winning Teams of Toycathon 2021 (of the total of 117 winning teams). The team Yukthi comprised of R. Amrita Laasya (First Year BTech Electronics and Communication Engineering), Palaniappan S. (Second Year BTech Computer Science and Engineering), Bhavika Taneja (First Year BTech Computer Science and Engineering), R. Giris Teja (First Year BTech Electronics and Communication Engineering) and Kadambari S. R. Aditya (First Year BTech Electronics and Communication Engineering).
Dr. R. Prasanna Kumar (Chairperson and Assistant Professor (SG), in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Amrita School of Engineering, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Chennai), and Rajkamal mentored the teams with a special focus on coding. Dr. Shreehari V. Gokarnakar(Assistant Professor, Amrita Darshanam – International Centre for Spiritual Studies, Chennai campus), Dr. A. Manikandan (Associate Professor & Chairperson for the Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, School of Engineering, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Chennai Campus), Dr. Sreedevi A. G. (Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, School of Engineering, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Chennai Campus), Satish Kumar, Dr. Vinata Sai (Associate Professor, Department of English, Amrita School of Engineering, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Chennai Campus), Radhika Suresh, Muthukumar and Anbarasan also guided the teams.
The following students also helped the teams in coding their digital games:
The invaluable feedback, insights and suggestions were given by Manikantan I. B. (Director, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Chennai) and Dr. P. Shankar (Principal, School of Engineering, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Chennai).
