sarkari school students emerge as top participants for designing AI-based solutions

Visakhapatnam: After carrying out extensive research and focusing on bringing out workable solutions for challenges experienced in different fields, a team of eight students from Srikakulam and Vizianagaram garnered recognition in AI space.

Their thoughtful and innovative AI-based concepts gained a place in the Amazon Future Engineer (AFE) Makerspace Lab, a collaborative learning space for underserved students studying from V to XII grades, as top three projects.

These eight students from three teams emerged as top participants among 39 student innovators who competed in ‘Hack to the future Andhra 2025’, a state-wide hackathon, held a few months back as part of Andhra Pradesh’s new AI curriculum initiative.

In order to address pressing problems faced in three different arenas, these students worked on three AI-powered solutions such as ‘EduCompanion’, a customised learning app that eases subject concepts in multiple languages, ‘CycleSathi’, a privacy-first menstrual health tracker and awareness tool for adolescent girls who are otherwise reluctant to share period problems with others and ‘Soil Mate’, a smart assistant that helps farmers choose sustainable crops based on various parameters and improve yields.

Currently, the teams are in Bengaluru. “It is extremely exciting to be part of the project. The visit to Bengaluru is our first out-of-the-school trip. There is so much to learn from one another, collaborate and exchange best practices,” shares P. Sai Roshini from AP Model School, Sompeta, Srikakulam, who forms a part of the EduCompanion project.

Some of the concepts learnt in classrooms are forgotten after reaching home. As most students feel reluctant to clarify doubts the next day, Sai Roshini says that it is this serious concern that her team’s project focused upon. “The app we developed aids in explaining subject-wise concepts in various languages, including Spanish and Japanese,” she informs, adding that an exclusive gadget would be developed next for the app along with her teammate D. Krishnavardhan from Class VIII.

CycleSathi app

Not many girls find it comfortable to share period problems even with their mothers. Having realised that many adolescent girls face similar challenge, three students — V Thanusri (Class IX), A Sandhya Rani (Class X) and G Hemachandrika (Class VIII) from KGBV, L. Kota, Vizianagaram designed ‘CycleSathi’ app. “My friends do not know the difference between regular and irregular periods or what is PCOS or hormonal imbalance. Some of them are dependent on pills. Through the app, we want to advocate period-friendly food, exercises to be followed and guide track period health,” explains Sandhya Rani. A chatbot was introduced so that app users can share their problems through the medium as well.

‘Soil Mate’

Explaining the disadvantages of mono farming and cultivating paddy as a single crop for decades, Class X student Pandava Deepak Kumar from AP Model School, Purushothapuram, Itchapuram mandal, Srikakulam, says that through ‘Soil Mate’ app sustainable farming practices would be promoted. “Based on climatic conditions and other parameters, the app suggests multiple crops to be cultivated. Depending on the soil test report values, we could suggest the type of crops to be grown in the region,” he reasons. This apart, Deepak Kumar, Jhahnavi (Class IX) and P Hemalatha (Class VIII) say that the app aids in preventing soil degradation as well.

Incorporating technology, the team members plan to develop the apps into real time prototypes to facilitate data exchange with the support of mentors from Makerspace Lab and Quest Alliance that designed AI curriculum in government schools.