Atal tinkering laboratories with prasoon sharma

Atal Innovation Mission under the aegis of NITI Aayog, has selected 2400+ ATL schools across multiple states of India. AIM targets to have at least one Atal Tinkering Lab in every district and proposed Smart City of India. 

In the last one year, more than 50,000+ school students have been engaged in ATLs. Earlier in July 2017, 600 students from more than 50 schools across the Delhi National Capital Region took part in a two-day Tinkering Fest, which was a 48-hour ideathon for school students to introduce and expose them to the world of Tinkering and Innovation. More than 100 different prototypes were created by these students. This is the power of innovation, that you can learn to build prototypes in just 48 hours! In order to ensure that the Atal Tinkering Labs In-Charge understand the philosophy of the labs, and are suitably technically equipped to guide the students, AIM organized training workshops across India. Called Unbox Tinkering, supported by two large technology firms, these workshops lasted over 100 days and were conducted at 10 locations. 500+ teachers have been trained and hundreds of prototypes created by teachers from different streams of science, mathematics, history etc. 

Several other initiatives, including ‘ATL School of the Month Challenge’, are conducted frequently to engage the ATLs. Additionally, a six-month long ‘Atal Tinkering Marathon’ was conducted across 6 focus areas that align with the national mission – Clean energy, health, smart mobility, smart agriculture, waste management and water resources. It is a platform to identify and showcase best performing ATLs. An estimated 30000+ students participated, 650+ innovation entries submitted. Top 100 were identified across 30 different states and union territories. From the top 100, best 30 have been identified from 20 different states and union territories. Mentors will work closely with top 30 to refine their solutions, and test them in the community.

With all this activity and engagement, some of the top performing ATLs participated at multiple external events including World Robotic Olympiad, Maker Faire, Nobel Prize series and several other robotic, technology innovation challenges across India. In fact, some of the ATLs are also representing their schools at international level events of innovation. 

​Students are enjoying ATLs, teachers and principals are exploring ATLs. And we are planning to soon engage Parents also into ATLs, to be able to build a complete ecosystem that supports and encourages innovation and entrepreneurship at the school level. With ATLs, AIM is taking its step towards creating a new India of 2022.