SSC student Lavanya wondered how robots could play football, and precisely identify the movement of the ball. Intrigued by the release of humanoid ‘Sophia’, class seven student Mahesh wondered if the rapid growth in number of humanoids could pose any danger to humans.
These are not students from any corporate school. These are students from a State-run Kammakandriga Zilla Parishad High School near Tirupati, who grilled the science experts on the occasion of ‘Science Day’.
In a bid to have science reach the rural areas, the Tirupati chapter of Indian Science Congress Association (ISCA), led by its President and former SVU Vice-Chancellor Prof. Rallapalli Ramamurthy, observed the event at the little-known school in the form of a demonstration on robotics.
Titled ‘Understanding of robotics’, the demo was given by the Mindtronix crew, who presented five types of robots — meant for domains such as military and warfare, space research, and humanoid — which work on infra-red technology.
Hands-on experience
Visibly thrilled by the movement of the robots, the students had a hands-on experience on dismantling and re-assembling the robots, while Prof. Ramamurthy explained the basic physics behind them.
On behalf of ISCA, he also offered to train mandal-level teachers in higher science so that they could teach the same to students hailing from rural areas.
District science coordinator P. Neelakantaiah announced that a similar event was conducted at Pathiputtur ZP high school in Vadamalapet under the aegis of APCOST. More events will be held in the first week of March at government schools in Thondamanadu (Srikalahasti), Rompicherla, Ramasamudram and Gundla Kattamanchi (Bangarupalyam).
