Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) Pilani conducted a Young Entrepreneurs’ Bootcamp (YEB), a six-day immersion programme for school students of grade nine to 12th to help them experience technology-driven innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem and understand the mind-set of an entrepreneur through interactions with successful start-up founders at its campus in Pilani. 51 students were selected from a pool of applicants across the country for the bootcamp.
According to an official statement, during the Bootcamp students interacted with eminent industry veterans, start-up founders, and alumni from BITS Pilani. The students also interacted with Kumar Mangalam Birla, BITS Pilani chancellor, chairman, Aditya Birla Group.
“For an entrepreneur, it is important to operate at the intersection of passion, purpose, and a problem. An entrepreneur can create magic if they operate at this intersection. That means it is important to have clarity on what your purpose is, what you are passionate about, and what is the problem you are out to solve. There is no better time than now to be young and well qualified in India that’s bursting with entrepreneurial energy, and Institutions like BITS Pilani are at the epicenter of this entrepreneurial movement in India,” he said.
Sonam Wangchuk, social entrepreneur and innovator, was chief guest of the Bootcamp. He spoke about his journey with the students and encouraged them to find contextualized solutions to problems. He said, “Importance of education, especially innovation, should be all about solving other people’s problems.”
Further, Rashmi Bansal, writer, entrepreneur, and author of books on entrepreneurship, shared success stories, including her own, of people building successful start-ups by thinking out of the box and pursuing their passion despite all odds. She spoke about the importance of silencing their “inner critic” and believing in themselves.
Other start-up founders and BITS Alumni who shared their journey of being an entrepreneur with students were Lohit Sahu, founder, CEO at Edzok; Sanskriti Dawle, CEO, co-founder, Tinkerbell Labs; Aditya Ruia, founder at Beco; Alok Mathur, co-founder at EnCore Mindseek and Sumit Nandedkar, ex-chief operating officer at Microtek International.
The interactions aimed to give students a sneak preview of how it feels to build a start-up, what to expect in the life of an entrepreneur, how to define and solve problems from a customer perspective, and to work on a business plan. Students further learnt about the emerging opportunities in drone theory and innovations in biotechnology, and disruptive trends in technology such as the Internet of things (IoT) and its applications, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), and design thinking tools.
On the last day of the Bootcamp, an innovation pitch competition was held to test the creative problem-solving skills of students. On the completion of the six-day Bootcamp, the students received certificates recognising their participation and contribution. The next edition of Young Entrepreneurs’ Bootcamp is being planned at BITS Hyderabad campus in December, 2022.
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