~ ‘Muthoot Young AI Innovators’ to support school students from idea to product, with the initiative being launched through Hack Your Future – Inter-School Coding Hackathon ~
The Muthoot Group has announced the launch of ‘Muthoot Young AI Innovators’, a pan-India CSR initiative that will earmark ₹1 crore over five years to identify, nurture and support promising AI ideas developed by school students up to Class 12.
The initiative will go beyond recognising ideas at competitions. Through the programme, selected young innovators will receive support to take their ideas from the concept stage to prototypes, products and potentially scalable ventures.
The initiative will bring together the wider ecosystem of The Muthoot Group, including Muthoot Finance and other division companies, along with its leaders, technology experts, entrepreneurs, teachers, mentors and industry professionals. The aim is to provide young innovators with the guidance, technology support, mentorship and resources required to develop their ideas and explore their potential for real-world application.
The programme will initially be rolled out from the next academic year, with students from Kochi and neighbouring districts being considered in the first phase. The initiative will subsequently be expanded to other parts of the country, with the long-term objective of creating a national platform for young AI innovators. Sanskara School, a CSR project of Muthoot Finance, already projected as the AI ready school, will act as the incubator.
As part of this expansion, the ongoing ‘Hack Your Future – Inter-School Coding Hackathon’ in Kochi will also open its participation to students and schools from other states, providing a wider platform for young innovators to showcase their ideas and become part of the Muthoot Young AI Innovators ecosystem.
“Every year, when we conduct our hackathon, we see students coming up with remarkably thoughtful ideas and solutions to real-world problems. But a prize should not be the end of an innovator’s journey. Through Muthoot Young AI Innovators, we want to create a pathway for promising ideas to grow beyond the competition. Our objective is to work with young innovators, nurture their ideas and help them explore the journey from an idea to a product,” said George Alexander Muthoot, Managing Director, The Muthoot Group.
Selected student innovators may receive milestone-based prototype grants ranging from ₹2 lakh to ₹5 lakh, along with mentorship, technical guidance and business support. Ideas that demonstrate strong potential for further development and scale may subsequently be considered for additional investment support of ₹10 lakh to ₹25 lakh.
The support will be facilitated through the wider ecosystem of The Muthoot Group, including Muthoot Finance, Sanskara School, MITS Kochi, Muthoot Business School and Emsyne, along with entrepreneurs, industry professionals, technology experts and educators.
Hack Your Future – Season II
The announcement followed the successful conclusion of the second season of Hack Your Future – Inter-School Coding Hackathon, a two-day AI Bootcamp and Hackathon held on September 10 and 11 at Sanskara School, Infopark Phase II, Kochi.
The programme brought together 25 teams from schools across Kerala, with students from Classes 9 to 12. Participants had the opportunity to learn about AI, coding and emerging technologies while developing solutions around four key themes: Education, Healthcare, Sustainability and Smart Communities.
The two-day programme included an AI bootcamp followed by the hackathon, where participating teams developed and presented their solutions before a panel of judges. The top five teams were shortlisted to present their ideas before the audience on the concluding day.
Mar Thoma Public School, Kakkanad, won the first prize for ‘Learnly’, an AI app designed to help students understand subjects better through visual narration. The team received a cash prize of ₹20,000. The Choice School, Tripunithura, secured the second prize for ‘Flex Align AI’, a project that uses video-enabled technology to help users correct their posture during workouts. St Antony's Public School, Kizhakkambalam, won the third prize for ‘Studyscroll’, an AI-based app blocker designed to help students stay focused on their studies. The second and third prize winners received ₹10,000 and ₹5,000, respectively.
The hackathon was organised by Sanskara School, an educational initiative of The Muthoot Group, in association with MITS Kochi and with the support of Google Cloud.
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