Pakistan Innovation Foundation’s initiative – The Creativity, Science, and Innovation (CSI) Labs – second batch for the beginners’ Robotics Legos 101 Workshop which was inaugurated on Monday, August 10 in collaboration with Muslim-Science successfully completed on Friday, August 14, 2015. The second batch consisting 12 students aged between as young as 7 years to as old as 18 graduated with distinction on 14 of August after completion of their week-long software and hardware introductory course on Robotics Lego. The graduation was celebrated along with the celebration of Independence Day on 14 August and was attended by students, their families and PIF Team.
The five day workshop was organized at WECREATE CENTRE in F-11 Islamabad to teach kids introduction of software programming and developing logic, how mechanical things work, robotics and artificial intelligence, teamwork and leadership, and creativity and Innovation.
Kids from all the ages were eagerly excited to work hard in groups to create their first software programme; build a Lego Robot that followed instructions, learned to operate sensors and competing with each other in several seen and unseen challenges. On the graduation ceremony kids presented their final unseen challenge in front of their families, trainers and team; followed by certificate distribution and Independence Day celebration.
Speaking at their graduation ceremony, Dr. Athar Osama, Founder and CEO of Pakistan Innovation Foundation noted that, “Today, the second batch of our young innovators who have received a week of instruction and experiential learning on robotics lego are graduating. We will soon move into launching more in-depth programmes for these graduates so that they can do more with what they learn here. These are extremely powerful kits that teach kids how to build and programme things. I am sure, with their enthusiasm for learning, they can move mountains and make a name for their country and Pakistan would, in due course, be among the countries that make things, not just use them.”
Father of two of students Mr. Owais shared his remarks, “It was highly important for me to provide an opportunity to my kids at such an early age where they can learn, experience and study Robotics Lego. My kids were very excited to learn programming, robotics and logic. They had an amazing experience and everything they learned was great.”
One of the students Mustafa Arsalan Ahmad spoke about the experience, “The reason I joined this course is that I thought it would be interesting. I learned new things. In this course, I learned how to program robots and how to build a robot, and I’ve made new friends and some enemies but later we all become friends and now this was a very great learning experience. I hope I get a job in Lego. Everybody here was great and I wish I could it more courses.”
Pakistan Innovation Foundation plans to introduces other initiatives to help create the next generation of innovators, scientists, and entrepreneurs needed by Pakistan in the future; such as the most recent Women’s Transport Innovation Challenge and Hackathon in Pakistan to address the challenge of providing affordable, convenient, and respectable transport to the women of the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad where top three winners will walk home with handsome cash.
