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

What killed my blog?

Blame it on twitter!
I tweet as @balajil

Quoted @ Hindu BusinessLine Newspaper

• Got quoted in Hindu Business Line when they covered Open Coffee Club Chennai. See  here 
• Some free marketing for Balaji Laksmanan(That’s Me) and my StartUp Geeky Technology & Consulting along with OCC Chennai.
• Just like i have shared in Business Line “With members sharing real-time solutions for several practical problems in business, most of my queries get clarified and the people here are my inspiration” , its a good forum to observe and learn from people with entrepreneurship vibe.
• I still remember attending the first ever OCC Chennai two years back. I reached outside the venue and was wondering if i should go in. I was just an enthu student from IIT Madras who had little idea why i was there. I decided to walk in and am thankful for it.
• OCC often has a mix of folks who are experienced entrepreneurs, Investors, those who have just started up, wanna be entrepreneurs, students and folks with little idea why they are there.
• Gives a good opportunity to observe, network and learn from the group.
• How has OCC helped me
  • Many friends with  whom i brainstorm, share, collaborate.
  • Better understanding of the business and corporate world and know hows of starting up.
  • Additional reason to be selected to attend entrepreneurship summit @ Stanford and partial sponsor for my travel to attend the summit. Check here for my sponsors and here for what i learnt from summit.
  • Most importantly, help me to transform from wanna be entrepreneur to someone who had Started UP.
• And during OCC Chennai meet up for June 2009, i was co host and was happy to contribute more. Had fun interacting with wanna be entrepreneurs/students, who reminded of me when i first attended OCC
• Feel free to buzz me if you wanna chit chat about your current/future StartUp.

A small action can make us feel NICE and that is all we need :)

• I was driving in my two wheeler ( as usual in a hurry ).
• Got stuck near an important signal in koyambedu ( Chennai, India . One of the high dense traffic areas). Though there was a space to move forward vehicles couldn’t move to the front.
• The problem was that few big cement block used to control traffic had fallen out of place and caused extra traffic jam.
• I managed to traverse through the traffic and move front (using an unpublished AI algorithm) near the signal and i had to stop.( It was a stop sign )
• I was thinking,  shouldn’t the cement block be put back to its place.
• Then suddenly, i dont know how it happened. A guy like me suddenly got off his bike and  lifted the cement block and pushed back to its place. The vehicles started moving forward.
• The cement block was heavy. Well, i know this coz  the guy who looked like me was me.
• I could see lot of people surprised and smiling. One fellow inside a car nearby actually clapped.
• It may not be a great act of courage or achievement, yet it made me feel nicer about me. And that is all we need
• I recollect this Lead India film which is par excellence. You should watch it whenever you feel you can’t make a difference to the world. All of us can. It doesn’t matter how much. It only matter if we choose to do or don’t.
• Whenever required, i identify myself with the kid and motivate myself

ASES Stanford Summit 2008 – Memories and Lessons

• ASES Stanford Summit happens April, every year  @ Stanford, CA and i was really lucky and excited to have got the opportunity to attend 2008 summit.
• Stanford  which i regard as epicenter of entrepreneurship was fantastic and i fell in love at the first sight. This is my third love @ first sight. The first two being “Computer” when i was in fourth grade and ASIMO ( yes the robot ) when i was in undergrad college.
• The summit was “fun”tastic roller coaster ride and only experiencing it can tell what it is and definitely not words.
• The planning and execution of the summit is a revelation by itself and standing ovation to the organizing team.
• The interesting thing is that it is a completely student driven international event.
• Its birth came about when couple of folks sitting in a room at Stanford were discussing what they can do to Asia Pacific and the rest of the world. It should be simply unbelievable. Will makes us wonder what are we doing for the World!
• Lots of Thanx and lots of love to all those made it happen.
• I have made a short movie on the memories and lessons @ Stanford Summit 2008

• This is just the tip of the ice burg.
• Why am i doing this now after a year?
• Wanna revisit all the wonderful moments, inspiring talks, company trips, discussion, pitching, dancing esp to a bangra number , dinners, outings, San Francisco trip and boat ride, wonderful farewell with lots of warmth, hugs, tears and lots and lots of snaps.
• The whole event was a fantastic balance of serious business of entrepreneurship as well as living the other life. This is the way conferences need to be organized.
• What has it done to me?
• I have taken up Entrepreneurship more seriously.
• Research life ( in Robotics and Machine Learning ) has been hectic and productive with  international publications and few robots.
• Have started up Geeky Technology & Consulting. Applied for a patent and been working on prototyping the product at the pace of tortoise.
• I will be into it  full time after my graduation. Thanks to ASES and our own e-cell at IIT Madras for the boost.
• Secretly planning for MBA at Stanford by 2011 . You can secretly contact me if you can help about it. Coffee / Beer guaranteed.
• Life has never been the same ever since.
• It was worth taking the autographs and messages of everyone. I definitely see some of us becoming collaborators in time to come.

ases signature

• Behind the scene, there were hardships of making it to the summit, from the passport issues, funding, flight ticket tension to making the summit video ( which took extreme perseverance of withstanding 20+ crashes of windows movie maker) and lot of planning and time.
• After all, it was worth it, made me stronger and opened lots of  opportunities. That is all that matters