Lucky with DARE Magazine

• Am Regular reader of DARE magazine.  Strongly suggest for you too.
• Our team AMRITA covered by the  Srijan IWSB, published in DARE magazine.
• Sweet surprise to see  me in one of the snaps. I was smiling big time.
• If you can spot me. Congrats on your eye sight. Else get yourself, eye check up :p
• Wish the whole team had been covered. They have worked their ass off for the Project.  Our team will get one soon.
• This was at IIM C . I had actually taken a flight for the event from Chennai to Kolkata to make it to the event.
• The feedback were very useful to fine tuned the B Plan.
• I have great memories with DARE magazine.
• They saw this ( Magazine Cover) coming long time back (even if this was for encouragement and their promotion)
• If i may, I can modestly say i am close to achieve what DARE predicted. But i still have a larger Dream to achieve. Miles to go before i sleep.

First prize at IIM A, B-Plan competition

• Our Team Amrita came frist at IIM A B-Plan competition http://www.iima-dbi.com/aarohan.html and can potentially get incubated at IIM A
• Our concept is a health gadget to improve primary health (like infant mortality, maternal mortality inwhich India is very ver poor)
• This helps people in remote villages who have to travel long from their place and leave daily job/ pay for primary health care.
• We want to extend this to different levels of medical care including tele medicine.
• The team is fantastic with Doctors of Stanley Medical College and engineers from IITM and NIT.
• The project also got Govt funding to make the gadget and do pilot in two villages arnd 100 km from chennai.
• The impact factor is gratifying.

• The video also reflects the actual poor state of  health care infrastructure, as pitched by one of the doctors of our team.
• Our team.

• One important suggestion to folks. Get a good team … rest will follow.
• Once a  VC (Venture Capitalist) told me.  Idea is like chariot and Team is like horses. Success is when the chariot reaches its destination. The chariot might be fantastic but if the horses are not up to the mark, it may not be able to take  the chariot to its destination. But if the horses are good success is more probable even for less fantastic chariot.

Steve Jobs brings traffic to my blog :)

• Was looking at what search terms bring traffic to my blog
• Companies/Individuals have told me that they found me through web while searching about  Robotics, Making Robots etc
• Its shockingly awesome that “Steve Jobs” brings traffic to my blog
• There is definitely some connection
• Check out what brings to your blog/ site

TEDxChennai *

• If you dont know about TED .. stop reading .. go to www.ted.com  .. get AWEd {appreciate if you come back}
• TEDxChennai has the same passion as TED: Spreading Ideas. http://tedxchennai.com/about-tedxchennai
• Been excited that TEDxChennai will be happening ..
•  Feels sooper Nice and more responsible for having been selected as TEDxChennai STAR . Have more responsibility to live up to it
• Read it also as “Thanx for the FREE entry 1000 bucks ticket “  :p
• Pass the word of TED around.

Hands On Robotics Workshop @ Aurora College

• Conducted One day Robotics Workshop @ Aurora College, Hyderabad
• Actually i was occupied with my current project commitments and was(is) working my ass off! But I agreed to do the workshop some six months back and had to keep my word.
• I was glad about doing the workshop …. Gave me some change and some sleep time during the travel. Most importantly interacting with students  recharged me.

• The organizers had done a great job and the hospitality was fantastic.
• Helped the students make their first robot and got them introduced to robotics concepts and career around robotics.
• There were students from CSE,ECE, EEE, Mech, Statistic.
• Floored by their response and felt almost a rockstar!
• Enthused them to try robotics for fun as hobby if not seriously.
• Robotics is a beautiful thing. It is like music or dance and is lot of fun and improves IMAGINATION which is more important than Knowledge as said  by Einstein.
• Wanna conduct Robotics workshop more often. I need to consciously dedicate some time to share and teach the fun around robotics.
• (Atleast) Once in life make a Robot.`

Robo Soccer

• If you wanna work in Robots Playing Soccer .. Here are my thoughts
• There are two main types of soccer robots

1) push

2) kick

push soccer robots are more popular and work as collaborative multi agent/robotic system

Can make it relatively easier using differential drive / two motos

• kick based are harder, slower and have balancing issues …

• Kick type in wheeled robot

For getting kick like mechanism flipper can be used … its like moving hand fan ( in Tamil called visiri)

attach a square/rectangle piece of wood/metal to shaft of the motor and control the motor accordingly. Make sure motor placement on the robot and size of the wood/metal is appropriate. Longer the flipper .. better the torque to kick the ball.

• For making any robot the main constraint is respective MOTOR ( and of course the budget). Control system and logic are feasible.

• Ctrl+C …..Ctrl+V  of my  reply to a mail on robots playing soccer
• Weeks back met few students from Venkateshwara college (SVCE) who were woking on kicking robot and goal keeping robot. Good to see the competitions.

TwitterHolic

How much TwitterHolic are you?
Check it out in http://twitterholic.com/

i am @balajil is ranked 29,641 on Twitterholic.com, and 11 in Chennai, India! http://twitterholic.com/balajil
Not Bad for Chennai Area.

Upcoming Events

• CII Connect Unconference 2009, Chennai 10th September 2009
  • If u r a blogger or twitterer, entry fee Rs.500 is waived for the Connect unconference on 10th Sept. Thanx to Kiruba & Co..  Mail at kirub[at]kiruba.com …  visit http://twitter.com/kiruba for info
• Electronica India , Banglore, 8 to 11 September 2009
  • Might visit on septemebr 11 …
• Taitronics , Chennai Trade Centre, 11 to 13 September 2009
  • Should be visiting on 13 september
• Would like to attend  all i can.
• Buzz me if you are coming to any of them.

Got Quoted in Hindu Education Plus

• No clue of e-word to Robotics startup. Thats me. Got quoted in hindu education plus
• Back in undergrad college most of us were left with two options. Post Graduation or Work. Entrepreneurship was GRE word.
• There was no exposure to e-word, very few that we knew who started up, no initiatives from college. We thought grey haired or (almost) zero haired people can only start companies and requires huge investments.
• Glad that things have changed.
• Many or i should say most students are thinking of entrepreneurship.
• There is great exposure to startups, many unconferences conducted, startup culture encouraged in colleges through e-cells.
• A significant ground work has been done by National Entrepreneurship Network (NeN), a non-profit organisation founded by the Wadhwani Foundation, to nurture the next generation of entrepreneurs.
• I remember members of NEN, relentlessly going around colleges to educate them to start e-cells. They also followed up in startup meets like open coffee club, proto etc.
• The market and Web has also matured.
• Any country to consistently progress needs Entrepreneurs everywhere.
• Hindu Education Plus does have a good reach. Been getting calls to support in Robotics, invitation to collaborate even from outside Tamil Nadu.
• I have no idea how i got smitten by startup bug. Am glad i started up Geeky Technology & Consulting and making  telepresence robot for a client.
• Dont just work for someone for the whole life. Startup atleast once in your only life.

Invited Talk @ Saveetha Engg College

• Gave a talk @saveethaEnggCollege on Robotics and Entrepreneurship
• Was invited for being a Roboticist and StartUper.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friends of mine Marketing Magnet @joe and Music Maaza founder @Vamsi Krishna  joined me.

 

Monday morning …. Students

I got the mike and then  …  Blah+video+Blah+video+video+blah+video+video+blah

Shared my experience on Robotics and Entrepreneurship

I knew only talking will be boring. So pepped it with enough videos. Nobody need to say to any roboticist and esp to me.

Kept the crowed awake except for minute while talking about research problem

Enjoyed giving the talk and was told students were enthused to know about Robotics.

Big applause for the shortfilm i made for myself.  Screened it to say “what we do matters more than who we are”.

Should appreciate the organisers for the hospitality and the cute gift

No matter what i do i always wanna share what i know*

 

*Conditions Apply