Amrita ATL Marathon Training and Mentorship Program 2021-22

December 14, 2021 - Apr 12, 2022

ATL Marathon is a national level innovation challenge, where school students identify community problems of their choice and develop innovative solutions in the form of working prototypes. The innovative solutions are recognized and presented at several national and international level platforms.

Get an overview of the ATL Marathon at https://www.secondfoundationinitiative.org/atl-marathon

ATL Marathon 2021 edition celebrated the resilience, diversity and achievements of India as we begin the 75th year of Independence. To commemorate this special year, ATL Marathon 2021 drew inspiration from developing a New India with the innovation and creativity of the young minds of our country. The Marathon was based on the ‘Strategy for New India @ 75’ document by NITI Aayog. This national strategy document for New India is a detailed exposition of forty-one crucial areas of national importance for achieving the objectives for a New India by 2022-23. ATL Marathon 2021 adopted four strategy areas or themes mentioned in the document – Healthcare & Nutrition, Education, Energy & Transport, Social Inclusion.

AIM Mentors of Change, IEEE Volunteers and researchers from Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Amritapuri campus trained children in skills such as app development, robotics, physical computing and IoT over a period of 3.5 months and mentored them to create their own innovation prototypes. Volunteers taught children to research problem statements, ideate solutions for their chosen problem statement, identify the best possible solution and create working prototypes. Children worked with MIT Media Lab's Scratch Programming language, MIT App Inventor, Google's Teachable Machine, Lego Mindstorm kits, BBC Micro:bit kit, and a variety of maker tools to build innovative prototypes for their ideas.


Program highlights:

  • 3.5 month long training and mentorship program

  • 84 children in 32 student teams trained including 13 all-girls team

  • 300+ hours of live mentoring for students

  • 15 digital and physical computing skills imparted to students through 8 hands-on workshops

  • 32 physical and digital prototypes made by children teams

  • 11 member professional mentor team including 6 women STEM professionals served as mentors

  • 9 educators from 3 schools supported children through the entire journey

Exclusive Training Sessions for Teachers

Problem statements for the ATL marathon in the four themes

Themes

Education

  • Innovate to create solutions to make education and learning inclusive and resilient for all children - Those with no access to devices or internet (Mobiles,Laptops,TVs) those that are in regions with extreme weather conditions, those with no access to a school (physical or virtual)

  • Innovate to integrate soft skills (personality building, confidence etc.), technical skills (digital and 21st century skills) and a mindset of innovation in the curriculum for schools/colleges to ensure students have the skillsets to become successful entrepreneurs or professionals.

Energy & Transportation

  • Innovate a system that could improve rider/driver (motorcycles, cars, trucks, and/or any other vehicle)/citizen (people and animals on the road) safety and prevent road accidents

  • Innovate solutions that reduce the carbon footprint as well as adopt climate-resilient and low-carbon strategies to enable the transition to truly sustainable India

Health & Nutrition

  • Innovate solutions specifically solving problems faced by patients suffering from the most common diseases of India. You can choose a disease from this list or pick another disease to create a solution - Diabetes, Anaemia, Tuberculosis, Malaria, Typhoid or others

  • Innovate to build solutions to find novel ways to address health and nutrition challenges such as malnutrition, obesity etc.

Social Inclusion

  • Innovate to create a sustainable model for financial inclusion which will help India get closer to the goal of no poverty by providing accessible and affordable financial services to all.

  • Innovate to create solutions to build inclusivity in the society in terms of languages and cultures so that localised access can be made possible for information related to education, financial literacy and government policies/schemes

Participation Guidelines

  • A team comprising of students (from ATL and Non-ATL schools) can submit their entries in the Marathon.

  • Keep your ATL UID handy while applying. Kindly enter the correct ATL UID to move forward.

  • The innovations by the student teams can be aligned to any one of the problem statements of the ATL Marathon 2021 or 'Any Other' problem that they see around them relevant to the broad themes of the ATL Marathon 2021.

  • The final entry of the innovation will be in form of a Research document and Video file (both mandatory)

  • ATL In-Charge, School Teachers, Mentors of Change, Alumni and external mentors from the local ATL ecosystem may support the student teams.

  • Each Team shall consist of maximum 3 students (class 6th to 12th) and one ATL in-charge/ School Teacher (must be employee of the ATL School). We encourage ATL schools to also include other school and/or community students within the Team Composition.

  • Kindly note, individual member entry is not allowed. Also if the team size exceeds 3-member limit, the entry/ submission will be immediately disqualified.

  • Each team must select one Problem Statement, where schools identify community problems of their choice and develop innovative solutions in the form of working prototypes. Submitting the same solution in multiple problem statements will result in immediate disqualification.
    The Marathon will be based on the ‘
    Strategy for New India @ 75’ document by NITI Aayog. This national strategy document for New India is a detailed exposition of forty-one crucial areas of national importance for achieving the objectives for a New India by 2022-23. It will adopt 4 strategy areas:

    1. Healthcare & Nutrition

    2. Education

    3. Energy & Transportation

    4. Social Inclusion

  • Last date to submit entries for the ATL Marathon 2021 is 12th April 2022

  • Please note, you should fill the form carefully and correctly, in case of incomplete or incorrect information entered in the form, your entry may be disqualified

  • Identifying student creations which are intellectual property and taking steps to suitably protect these is the responsibility of the school. The ATL team at Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog has provided a number of resources for ATL schools and students on Intellectual Property and related matters at the AIM website (http://aim.gov.in/intellectual-property.php). In almost all cases, the student innovator(s) will own their original innovative work done in the ATL.

  • The ATL Marathon 2021 is for Indian students currently enrolled in school (Class VI to Class XII) both from ATL and non-ATL schools, in case your entry is selected as a finalist, the team members may be asked to provide proof in the form of a photo of your school i-card or any other form as deemed appropriate by AIM, NITI Aayog. Failure to do so may result in your entry being disqualified.

  • Participants submitting their entries for the marathon acknowledge that the decision of AIM, NITI Aayog regarding the winners will be final and binding. Participants are responsible for making sure that they have the necessary rights, licenses, and/or permission for any content used in making the entry for the marathon. AIM, NITI Aayog and its affiliates/partners are not responsible for the content made and shared by the participant. AIM, NITI Aayog reserves the right to display, distribute and reproduce participant’s work on social media or elsewhere as deemed fit by AIM, NITI Aayog. AIM, NITI Aayog or its affiliates will not be responsible for any breach of Intellectual Property of any party associated with the marathon. In case of any dispute, the decision of MD, AIM shall be final and binding.

  • A Team may submit entries to more than one problem statement, please keep in mind that to do so you will need to fill the application form separately for each problem statement.

  • The online application form includes:

Document Submission (description of the innovation/ solution)
The document (300 words only) should cover aspects of research (primary and secondary research) on the problem statement such as : Why have you selected the problem statement, the idea behind the innovation/ solution, which technique/ technology you have used, the various technical components of the application/ solution (e.g. cloud connect, database, etc.)

Video Submission (link to the video)
The content flow is expected to be as follows:

    1. Introduction to the current working prototype/ solution (360-degree view)

    2. Functionalities and salient features

    3. On-ground testing/ implementation – The journey

    4. Role of each team member

    5. Involvement of community/ local mentors/ institutions/ industry sharing their feedback of the solution (if any)

  • Please note, if the submitted video link is not fit to play/ link is inaccessible, the entry/ submission will be immediately disqualified.


By applying in the ATL Marathon 2021, you agree to all the above Terms and Conditions

Meet the schools

Amrita Vidyalayam, Puthiyakavu

K S puram P O, Karunagappally,

Kollam, Kerala, India

Amrita Vidyalayam, Thalassery

Maakoottam, Punnol,

Thalassery, Kerala, India

Amrita Vidyalayam,

Kochi

Kunnumpuram, Edapally North P.O.,

Ernakulam, Kerala, India

Meet the ATL teachers

Ms. Deepa M. V.

AV Puthiyakavu

Ms. Rejitha AV Puthiyakavu

Ms. Jincy Sreejith AV Thalassery

Ms. Seema

AV Thalassery

Ms. Manju

AV Kochi

Meet the mentor team

Gayathri Manikutty Research faculty at AMMACHI Labs, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, IEEE STEM Ambassador, AIM Mentor of Change

Parvathy Krishnan

Data Scientist at the World Bank, Alumni of Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, AIM Mentor of Change

Marco Sangiorgio (Prabodh)

A320 Base Maintenance, Zone Leader @ Dublin Aerospace, AIM Mentor of Change

Girinath Pillai

Coordinator for Drug Discovery Hackathon by MoE, Govt of India,

Chief Scientific officer, Zastra Innovations, Bengaluru,

Research scientist,

Nyro Research India, Kochi, AIM Mentor of Change

Ganesh Narayanan Senior Researcher at Amrita Center for Wireless Networks & Applications (Amrita WNA) , Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, AIM Mentor of Change

Sreejith S

Researcher at AMMACHI Labs, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, IEEE STEM Ambassador, AIM Mentor of Change

Pranav Prabha Researcher at AMMACHI Labs, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, IEEE STEM Ambassador

Lakshmi Gopal

PhD Researcher at Amrita Center for Wireless Networks & Applications (Amrita WNA) , Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham

Aswathy A

PhD Researcher at Amrita Center for Wireless Networks & Applications (Amrita WNA) , Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham

Aswathy M

Researcher at Amrita Center for Wireless Networks & Applications (Amrita WNA) , Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham

Liya M L

Researcher at Amrita Center for Wireless Networks & Applications (Amrita WNA) , Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham