More power to Tessa

What makes Tessa, the humanoid robot, special is that the students made her from scratch and not with the help of any robotic kit

Someone who drives past Siddhartha Central School in the quiet Pallimon village at the Kollam district of Kerala would guess that something big is happening there. For the past few weeks, people from various walks of life have been thronging the school premises, with one wish – to get a glimpse of Tessa!

Well, their latest celebrity Tessa is not student, but a humanoid robot built by the Robotics Club of the school. What makes Tessa special is that the students made her from scratch and not with the help of any robotic kit. The ‘genius robot’, as the kids call it, who would sing, walk, rotate head, narrate stories, answer queries and recognize voices was born in the school robotics lab. It took almost one year for the students to develop, programme and build a working prototype of the AI-powered 27-kg robot, for which they designed the body using thermocol, plaster of paris and fibre coating.

“Around 150 students from class 7^th and 8^th were involved in the process. They made use of their weekly hour-long robotics period and turned up at school during weekends and holidays to work on the robot. Their enthusiasm and fascination were epidemic; the teachers too were very encouraging,” says Sam, the system administrator of the school, who guided the Robotics Club along with staff of Techosa Innovations, a robotics firm.

Tessa, built on Google Cloud database, can understand natural speech and can reply to any query. She can speak, sing and being sensor-enabled, move autonomously without hitting any object on the path. Bluetooth-controlled and enabled with gesture interaction, Tessa looks at the person who talks to her and can rotate her head to the direction of sound, reciprocating to calls and conversations.

“She is an assistant to us. She can rotate her head in 180 degrees and answer any query,” says Devananda, a seventh-grader, who is part of the robotics team, and explains the future plans, “Tessa will be our school’s main attraction. After updating her with face recognition, she will be placed at the school gate welcoming the visitors and identifying the faces of parents and guardians of the students. We are also updating her with home automation so that she can control the lights, fans and electrical system of the school, switching off anything that’s left on by mistake. As of now, Tessa has no arms, so we will first give her arms.”

The students will add surveillance mechanism to Tessa, who will also be the school receptionist who can offer the visitors a guided tour of the institution. Reciting the prayer and national anthem, she will soon grace the school assemblies and be an assistant to the sweepers by helping with cleaning.

School principal Sunitha Kumari is wowed by the students’ dedication. “They used to forgo their PT hours and holidays to work on Tessa. This was also a revelation for us that education can be fun too,” she adds.

It has been two years since robotics was added to the school curriculum with an aim to encourage lessons on technological advancement in artificial intelligence and automation. “We started with basic electronics in class V and progressed to programming concepts as the students reached class VII. We want the children to bring output through hardware. It was during a summer camp that they came up with the idea of Tessa after they were introduced to the semi-humanoid Pepper robot. Guided by their instructors, principal, parents and the management, who raised funds for the project, the students, armed by determination and passion, worked hard to make Tessa. Barring a little help with programming, everything else was done by the students themselves,” recalls Sam. The robot was built at the cost of Rs 2 lakhs.

It was proud day for the whole school when Tessa was unveiled in collaboration with the promotion of the Malayalam movie Android Kunjappan V 5.25 which narrates the story of a man who grows attached to the robot which takes care of him. Devika Praseeth, a seventh-grader from the Robotics Club remembers the day vividly, “I have never seen such a huge crowd. We were both excited and worried, but everything went well and Tessa was amazing. We are proud to be part of the glory Tessa brought to our school.”

A team of 12 students are taking the glory farther by accompanying Tessa to an international robotic conference in New Delhi. Once back to school, Tessa would be actively clearing doubts, assisting academic and manual works, doubling up as cleaning staff, guard and receptionist and above all, inspiring students to become ambitious. Ask if she would replace the teacher, Sam laughs, “No, even among robots, there’s no substitute for a teacher.” The students too would agree with him.

Published in Deccan Herald on December 22, 2019

The space girl Life

Ashna Sudhakaran, a village girl whose father is a farmer, is back from her three-month internship in NASA. she tells her story.

I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream — these words of Vincent van Gogh on her Facebook profile summarises Ashna Sudhakaran’s dream. The 27-year-old is just back from Washington DC — from NASA, where she was an intern for three months at the Goddard Space Flight Centre. For the daughter of a farmer who studied in a government school, it has been a proud journey from a little village named Koduvalli in Kozhikode to the prestigious space research centre. 

“NASA was nowhere in my plans. My dream destination was either the ISRO or the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre,” Ashna begins excitedly. Words gush out as Ashna talks about her family, school, teachers, research, sun, love for literature and travel, deep admiration for APJ Abdul Kalam, high regard for Kalpana Chawla and about her NASA days. The self-confessed chatterbox reveals, “I was never the studious type. All I did was read novels, stories and poems. A very weak student in Mathematics, I had no idea about even a branch named Space Physics then!” Space Physics, her area, is the study of everything above the earth’s atmosphere up to the edge of the solar system. 

Ashna was a ninth-grader when Indo-American astronaut Kalpana Chawla died in the Columbia space shuttle disaster. Reading about her and her space venture, Ashna started idolising Kalpana and carried her photograph all the time. Her friends teased, calling her ‘the space girl’. Ashna was in class X, when former President and India’s Missile Man Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam visited Kozhikode where he gave an inspiring talk for three hours. Listening to him among the audience, Ashna — who says she didn’t even know that he was a scientist — found her second idol. 

After graduating in physics with 80 per cent marks, she joined a college in Tiruchy for post-graduation. “I came to know that St Joseph’s College, where Kalam had studied, was nearby and went there,” she recalls. Walking along the corridors of his school and sitting in his classroom filled her with energy. Once, she went on a solo ‘pilgrimage’ to Rameshwaram, the abode of her icon, visited Kalam’s ancestral home and interacted with his brother and relatives. 

For the M. Sc. internship, students had to submit a thesis. When most of them chose to stay at home and submit a ‘purchased’ project, Ashna stayed on the campus alone and worked in the library for hours to come up with hers. For the mandatory internship, she applied to VSSC, but got rejected as they had no place for M. Sc. students. She tried again and again even as she lost one whole month waiting, and finally, impressed by her letter of interest, they took her in. 

“There, I worked on gravity and ionosphere physics. The experience there ignited my passion and thus began my research career. For MPhil thesis internship, I applied to the 100-year-old Solar Physics Observatory in Kodaikanal. Again, they didn’t entertain a woman in their campus which had four to five staff, all of them men. I couldn’t give up and kept sending mails. After a rigorous interview, I was let in. The six months I spent there were very surreal. I was the only person who stayed on the campus at night; everyone else was staying outside. Later, when I read C. Radhakrishnan’s Pullippulikalum Vellinakshatrangalum about his stay at the observatory as the sole person on the campus back in the 60s, I could very well relate to it. That was my story!” laughs Ashna who later also interned at the Aryabhatta Research Centre, Nainital. 

Her journeys were not limited to laboratories and internships; she travelled all over India alone wherever there were summits, conferences or anything that discussed Space. One such journey took her to Maharashtra where she attended a 15-day programme and learnt about the SCOSTEP Visiting Scholarship offered by NASA. “Under the programme, young scientists and graduates were trained in solar-terrestrial physics labs. My research was on the geo-effectiveness of the energetic phenomena of the sun. Getting selected was not easy as they offered it to only four persons every year, and so, I had not much hope,” she says. 

It was on her wedding eve that Ashna received the email announcing her selection to the Heliophysics Division of the Goddard Space Flight Centre; she had 10 days to submit her research proposal for the fellowship. Her husband Umesh, an environment officer at a tiger reserve in Tirunelveli, was very supportive of her dreams and passion. 

With everyone’s wishes and support and her hard work, Ashna bagged the Rs 7-lakh fellowship from NASA which covered her travel, accommodation expenses for the duration of the stay. “My little village celebrated it and for my family, there could be no prouder moment. But all my worry was about my first flight,” she chuckles remembering the nervousness. NASA was a new world to this small-town girl — scientists constantly inspiring each other, friendly people, experts who guided her through mistakes. “My work was on solar radio burst and it was no 9-to-7 research. The Centre was open 24x7. I explored the organisation, observatories and departments, attended various workshops, interacted with space weather researchers from around 50 countries… it was an inspiring, memorable opportunity.” 

Ashna had moments of doubt too. “I am not academically bright; I am just driven by passion. I was demotivated at times, but my fellow researchers said that the world of science needs both intelligence and passion and asked me to never lose the passion. I won’t,” she says. 

She wants to spread the word — that opportunities are always there before you; you just need to look for it. “Every child should know that despite their background — even if their parents are poor, even if they study in Malayalam medium schools or are not brilliant, they could make it there if they have strong passion. I am planning to do a space physics outreach programme at my school to share my experience with kids who want to become another Kalpana Chawla,” she explains. 

Ashna would be back in NASA — she could go back any time — after completing her research in two and a half years. Happiness is double now as Ashna and Umesh are awaiting their first child who will be born in a couple of months. Marriage and motherhood will never stand in the way of her dreams. “People around me have influenced me a lot. My sole dream is to go to Space. I know that 99 per cent of the work happens on ground and astronauts are just a tool. But I’d definitely go there.” 

The Space girl she is, she knows her path to the stars. 

 Published in The Asian Age on October 31, 2017

Aroor's tech guru

Ebadu Rahman uses his YouTube channel to create a positive impact.

Do you know that adding a missing place, photos or reviewing the bus station you enter would earn you points and badges in Google Maps? Are you aware that you can know the number of times the mail you sent has been read? Has it ever occurred to you that scanning a QR code can automatically update the entry on your Google calendar? A quick scan through the YouTube channel 'Ebadu Rahman Tech' shows you that all these things are possible. 

Ebadu Rahman, the man behind the hit channel, is happy that more and more people are subscribing to his informative tutorials. A tech Vlogger, social media consultant, Facebook video marketing professional and strategy advisor, Rahman shares information on technical subjects - ranging from fixing a water-damaged cell phone to applying online for a birth certificate. “I explain things in simple Malayalam in an interesting way so that people get hooked to the video,” says Ebadu, who, though has been running the channel for over a year, gained popularity in the last three months. He has been uploading a video each day with tips to bring the layman closer to technology. The videos also educate people about various government schemes that can be accessed online instead of facing serperntine queues and red tapes.

Ebadu started off as a wedding videographer, but knew that his heart was elsewhere. He always had a penchant for technology and kept his know-how updated. When Google purchased YouTube in 2006, he sensed that it was a new beginning. “By 2010, I quit videography and focused on YouTube, which has been my passion, career, and life since then. I am a certified YouTube consultant and have worked for various Malayalam TV channels,” he says. He now earns much more than he used to -–both in terms of money and happiness. 

For Ebadu, social media is not for just entertainment. “People here are yet to realise the reach and market of social media. It can be used for so many positive purposes. More than money, what attracted me is its potential for social purposes. Vlogs can be started with a zero budget – you just need a mobile phone. And you can make money by spreading good ideas and not cheap stuff. Be a responsible social media user,” he says, inviting more content creators. 

The YouTube channel is a family affair for the Rahmans - the video is shot by Ebadu's wife Safna and by their son Raihan at times. The graphics and editing are being handled by Ebadu himself. An old cattle shed in their home at Aroor has been converted into a studio where the shoot happens. The family waiting for their little daughter Raima to turn one to launch another YouTube channel – Safna's Tips, about kitchen tips, home remedies and traditional practices people need to know. 

Apart from running his own channel, attending technical sessions and being ready to answer any doubt 24x7, Ebadu also manages over 10 YouTube channels for his clients. Where does he find time for all of this? Smiling, he says, “Actually, I have a strategy for that too. I go with a daily schedule and do not take up anything that affects it. Above all, I love what I do.”

 Published in Deccan Chronicle on July 11, 2017