Bearing testimony to the academic excellence of Amrita once again, Prof. Prashant R. Nair, Vice-Chairman, Department of Computer Science & Engineering, School of Engineering, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Coimbatore campus, has been selected as a ‘Mentor of Change’ for the Government of India’s flagship program of Atal Tinkering Labs, established by the Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) of NITI Aayog (Planning Commission). ‘Mentor of Change’ program is conceived as a strategic nation-building initiative to engage young leaders, who can guide and mentor students in thousands of Atal Tinkering Labs that AIM has established and is in the process of establishing across India.

Through encouraging and nourishing startups across the nation, AIM seeks to serve as a platform for promotion of world-class innovation and entrepreneurship in India. Already, AIM has set up 2500 state-of-the-art Atal Tinkering Labs (ATL) in schools all over India and the promoters hope to reach 10,000 schools by 2020. By making DIY (do-it-yourself) kits on latest technologies like 3D Printers, Robotics, Internet of Things (IoT), micro-controller boards and miniaturized electronics available to students, ATLs encourage young minds to tinker with them and come up with innovative solutions for real-world problems.

Prominent AIM ‘Mentors of Change’ include Tarun Khanna, Harvard Business School; Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Paytm founder; Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, CMD of Biocon; Debjani Ghosh, President of NASSCOM and Anant Maheswari, President of Microsoft India.

“The coveted recognition bestows me with more responsibility and opportunities,” shared Prof. Prashant, who has started online mentoring and completed the first site visit to a leading school, Yuvabharathi, in Coimbatore.