IIT Delhi Change Makers Summer Camp

Hi all, wanted to share my experience at the IIT Delhi summer camp that I had recently attended, with a small writeup and some clips.

IITD hosted a DIY summer boot camp named ‘Change Makers’, where students across India were chosen through a form and an interview. the students of classes 11th and 12th were chosen for this program, and they had access to the Institute’s state-of-the-art facilities to convert their impactful ideas to reality.

It was a non-residential boot camp, held from 23rd May to 24th June 2022. It involved hands-on, rapid prototyping-based training in digital and mechanical fabrication. The training took place at the Makerspace (a DIY facility at IIT Delhi). After the training, the students were able to avail the IIT Delhi facilities till the end of the boot camp to build projects aimed at addressing some high-impact societal problems.

My experience?

I got to know about the change-makers summer boot camp just after the last date for registration had passed. I never expected to be able to visit the hallowed precincts of IIT Delhi, the aspiration of every PCM student. By some stroke of luck, I was selected for this prestigious program. Thank you so much to the staff at IIT Delhi for seeing the potential maker in me and allowing me to have such a great experience at a place I never thought I would be able to visit.

Visiting the maker space was a tinkerer’s dream come true, and it was a fantasy land for those who wanted to ideate, design and hold the final product in their hands. It was exactly what I had imagined to be, a huge area with all sorts of tools, from laser cutters, 3D printers, CNC routers, Water jets and more. It was truly exciting to enter this large room every day.

I really enjoyed interacting with the other innovators there. working with them and learning from them has been a personal milestone for me. Seeing how they approached a problem, giving their creative ways to solve it, and how everyone worked together has been an important step in increasing my teamwork skills.

Every time I asked the mentors a question, I would go back to my breadboard circuit, knowing how that one component finally worked. They were the epitome of the proverb –

“A single conversation with a wise person is better than 10 years of study.”

My team and I worked on a project called “Jaltech”, which allowed users to reuse reject water from R.O. systems. The reject water can be used for various useful tasks like watering your plants, cleaning the dishes, giving your pet a bath etc. it was an automated system which would monitor factors like the water level, the TDS and pH value. The reject water is collected over time, and the system would dispense the water automatically to the area of need. it measures and adjusts the pH and TDS level of the water to make it suitable for watering plants. It was designed using a microcontroller (ESP32) called the ‘TTGO’, which could be programmed as per our needs. This idea was suggested by me, and after getting the green flag from my team and the professors on campus, we worked on the design, programming, soldering, and assembly to make it into a functioning prototype.

We got to visit the biochemistry and chemical engineering lab, and I want to thank the professors who made those lab visits possible. They were a huge eye-opener for all of us, and I really hope to pursue something related to this in my future education. If the opportunity were to present itself again, I would definitely sign up for something like this again.

“Change Maker’s” Summer Boot Camp at IIT Delhi

IIT Delhi to Organise Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Summer Boot Camp for School Students : IIT Delhi

IIT Delhi summer boot camp successfully achieved by Class 11 and Class 12 (timesnownews.com)

IIT Delhi To Organise Summer Boot Camp For Class 11, 12 Students (ndtv.com)

“Change Maker” Delhi Students Made These At IIT Camp. Yes, A Robot Too (ndtv.com)

Change.Makers summer boot camp exhibition held today at IIT Delhi (thehansindia.com)

Makers summer boot camp exhibition held today at IIT Delhi (thehansindia.com)

IIT-Delhi to hold summer boot camp for students of classes 11 and 12 from May 23 | Cities News,The Indian Express

School students showcase promising prototypes they built at Change.Makers summer boot camp organised by IIT Delhi – India Education | Latest Education News | Global Educational News | Recent Educational News (indiaeducationdiary.in)

Terrain mapping robot, convertible car seats: School students build prototypes during IIT Delhi camp – ThePrint – PTIFeed

IIT Delhi Oragnises Summer Bootcamp for Class 11, 12 Students, to Build Electro-mechanical Prototype (news18.com)

IIT Delhi summer boot camp successfully achieved by Class 11 and Class 12 (timesnownews.com)

Makers summer boot camp exhibition held today at IIT Delhi (thehansindia.com)

Anger Story

(This story is written by Sanaa Shaikh of Shams class at Hedayah Gurgaon. During our discussion in class on the topic of “Controlling Anger” [Lesson 23 – Islamic Tahdib and Ikhlaq] students were given an assignment to write a story about an angry person who got into trouble because of his / her temper)

What is the worst possible way to find out you have magical powers?  Accidentally turning your sibling into a duck? Making your teacher’s hair green for a week? Giving the local bully a pigs’s tail? How about a door slam that ends up burning down your house?

Yeah, Rasheed was not having the best day.

He doesn’t even remember what the argument started over- his brother hogging the PlayStation or maybe his Ammi nagging him about homework? That was unimportant. It was followed by loads of yelling and stomping though. A trail that followed him to his upstairs bedroom where he slammed the door hard enough to crack the frame. He thought Ammi would kill him for that. Well, if Ammi knew what was to follow she may have excused him.

Rasheed wanted to punch someone, or something. The loudest, vilest things rang in his ears. His vision was blurry with tears. His jaw hurt from grinding his teeth so much. He couldn’t bear it anymore. He screamed. Then his hair promptly caught fire. Then he screamed some more.

His commotion brought his parents up to his room, who also joined in the screaming fest. Now smoke was trailing him. Everything was on fire. Rasheed fainted. 

His head felt like an anvil had dropped on it, while it was still hot. Everything was woozy. As his senses adjusted, he saw that he was outside his house. Somewhere in the background his brother was crying, and his mother was fussing over him. His father was engrossed in a very animated conversation with the village warlock, the old magician lady who lived nearby. His apparently very flammable hair was singed and burnt. Oh, also his room was charred black. He wanted to cry again.

The warlock saw that he was awake and walked over to him. She helped him up on his feet then smacked the side of his head. He yelped loudly.

“You are magic. Keep safe. Don’t burn house down. Foolish child.” The warlock was a woman of a few words. Rasheed looked around at his family sheepishly, and apologised for his actions. But there was nothing to do now, except regret.

His brother forgave him and hugged him. Then his parents also joined in. They were just glad to have regular Rasheed and not roasted Rasheed. 

The warlock lady checked her wristwatch. “Okay. You better have learnt you lesson.” She waved her hands around and his room was restored. She nodded at him and vanished in a poof of pink light. She did not restore his hair.

“Always remember, Rasheed, anger doesn’t solve anything but can destroy everything” his father patted his back.

– Sanaa

Diriliş: Ertuğrul and Muslims in Popular Media

Picture this: two strangers outside a masjid are embroiled in a lively discussion over a minor campaign undertaken by a 13th century Turkish tribal leader who doesn’t even have a recorded biography. No, they are not historians specialising in 13th century Turkey. No, they are not even Turkish. They’re just one of the many, many fans of the massively popular, semi-historical, fantasy adventure television show Dirilis: Ertugrul. Seems strange? Well, not in this universe.

So how did a show starring previously unknown actors created by a newbie director gain so much popularity that it airs in 30 countries, is dubbed/subtitled in even more languages, boasts its own cosplay and merchandise, and even has several dedicated meme pages? How is it being picked up by major streaming services like Netflix and YouTube? How does it command a several-million-strong fanbase that even includes world leaders? Why are people hosting Ertugrul-themed birthday parties and printing Kayi flags on phone covers? And most importantly, why do the supposedly ultra-orthodox, music-is-haram, tv-is-shaitan touting, wildly-conservative Muslims love it so very much? Honestly, play the opening theme in any grocery store and a Muslim person will emerge from the other aisle to share a knowing nod. 

It is rather heartwarming, and deeply surprising, to see how a TV show seemingly brings together people. Despite the fact that it is set in medieval Turkey, featuring warriors on horseback and damsels in elaborate head-dresses, it could not be more relatable to its viewers. Those who watch Ertugrul, almost see themselves reflected in it. It has found a dedicated following among Muslims, without being overly religious and preachy or stereotypical and cliched. It has managed to capture the hearts, minds, and imaginations of an audience who grew up feeding on mainstream media, but yearned to see themselves represented in it. 

Think of all previous Muslim characters you’ve seen, from the gun-toting Hollywood terrorist to the shayari-dropping Bollywood poet, or even the occasional azaan soundtrack in quirky indie movies. I’m not saying that all Muslim representation in mainstream movies is negative, but the good ones are few and far in between. Dirilis: Ertugrul came and changed the paradigm. It worked quite the way hypernationalist parties work (which seems apt, considering it has also been accused of being political propaganda), it found its target audience and stuck to it. It didn’t try appealing to commercial interests or perceived prejudices, it just made a show for a relatability-starved Muslim audience, sprinkled with authenticity and creativity, and it did wonderfully. 

I suppose there’s a lesson or two here for us Muslims (apart from ibn Arabi’s highly quotable sayings), a lesson about how we want to move forward as an Ummah. We don’t see ourselves represented in the media because we always rely on others to tell our stories for us. We expect someone who has probably never met a Muslim person in their life to show accurate, honest portrayals of Muslim characters. That’s absurd, and inevitably leads to disappointment. The solution isn’t abandoning and demonising media altogether, it’s too wonderful a platform to do that. The solution is, quite simply, to tell our stories ourselves. Look at the show in question, for example. Ertugrul is a show created by Muslims, starring Muslims, for Muslims. And look at how successful it turned out. 

For too long we have presented our stories the way we expect to be seen, not the way we want to be seen. We’ve all seen Dirilis: Ertugrul, but perhaps it’s time for a Dirilis: Ummah?

Hedayah Annual Shura 1441H

The wait for the Annual Shura 1441 by Hedayah Gurgaon was worth it as it was organised at OYO Townhouse Sector 47 Banquet hall on 29th September 2019 / 29th Muharram 1441 HE

Preparing for the event

Children prepared with a lot of enthusiasm for the event. This gave us all a chance to connect more. Alhamdolillah!!!