Frontline Innovation

The workshops

AI with Electronics

A three-day, challenge-based workshop for students who had finished their A/L examinations, with no experience needed. Participants learned the basics of AI and electronics, trained their own AI models with Google's Teachable Machine, wired those models into electronic projects, and solved problems in teams. It ran on 20, 22 and 23 February.

TrackMaster Challenge

A robotics workshop and competition open to individuals and teams from anywhere in Sri Lanka, aged 17 to 28. Participants assembled a car kit, coded its sensors, and raced the car autonomously along a line-following track. Registration ran from 28 January to 5 February. The workshop ran on 20, 21 and 23 February, with the main competition on 21 February. Engineering students from outside the province came to compete, and so did students from a local university-access programme, several of whom had built their first robot that week.

3D Printing and Design

For university students: the history of 3D printing, the parts of a printer, filament types and their uses, and designing a simple model and printing it. It ran for about three hours a day on 21 and 22 February.

Day by day

Who took part

Thirty-six young people took 57 places across the three workshops, because many signed up for more than one. In 54 of those places the participant came to every session, while a concert, screenings, exhibitions and talks ran around them.

Who taught

Sujipan Sugarnan

Led the MakerSpace and its MakerFaire activity, taught 3D Printing and Design, and looked after the technical needs of the whole event

Askinas Biyalish Kuganesan

Co-taught 3D Printing and Design, and made small 3D-printed innovations for display

Kokulnath Mahendran

Ran the TrackMaster Challenge, set up the track in the cabanas, and guided participants as they built, coded and raced their cars

Brunthaban Manickavasagam

Led the innovation showcase and its live demonstrations

Kiritharan Mahenthiran

IoT, whose prosthetic hand was among the innovations on show. Recruited the student volunteers who guided visitors

Around the workshops

• Live demonstrations. Each day the team showed the whole making process, from planning and design to 3D printing, building and presenting.
• Innovation showcase. Projects on show included a PET filament maker and a prosthetic hand, both finished for the event, and work on an underwater glider.
• Hands-on area. Visitors could try robotics kits, 3D printers and Arduino boards with the makers beside them.
• School visits. School groups on the first two days saw 3D printers and robots at work.

Outcomes

• Hands-on experience for 36 young people in AI, electronics, robotics and 3D printing.
• Near-complete attendance. In 54 of the 57 places, the participant came to every session.
• The workshops fed each other. Many participants took a second workshop.
• Participants made real things. They built and raced autonomous cars, trained AI models and connected them to electronics, and designed and printed their own objects.