Whitehat Jr. is a leading provider of live online 1:1 learning with a strong curriculum focused predominantly on strengthening kids’ math and coding abilities. Earlier this year, the platform’s team unveiled, launched, and subsequently hosted a unique technology challenge for students in India. Newly appointed to the role of CEO, Trupti Mukker offers a closer look at their recently concluded Swasth-Bharat tech champ event.
Whitehat Jr.’s recent Swasth-Bharat tech champ initiative challenged students in India to come up with a mobile app idea that would overcome obstacles, address problems, and promote real change in the country. In total, over 10,000 children participated in the event, held over the course of six months. It was an overwhelmingly positive but not unexpected response, according to the platform’s team.
“I think when we launched this initiative, we were very confident that the children across India who already have a lot of ideas would be keen to partake,” explains newly appointed Whitehat Jr. CEO Trupti Mukker. “Each day of the Swasth-Bharat tech champ challenge that passed, the number of ideas, the complexity of ideas, and the problems that the children were trying to solve just kept on increasing,” she adds.
Amazing depth and breadth of ideas, says Whitehat Jr. CEO
The Whitehat Jr. team recorded entries from all over India, including major cities, small towns, schools in the villages, and everywhere in-between. “The depth and breadth of the ideas that we received absolutely amazed us,” says CEO Trupti Mukker. With that, she’s keen to give an example, pointing out that while some children looked to address more commonplace issues, others thought about problems that many adults may not have appreciated even existed.
“One of the children that submitted an entry spoke about his grandparents and how the potential loneliness of older individuals across the board was troubling him,” Mukker reveals. “As such, he sought to consider mental health beyond the obvious issues that adults typically think about,” she adds. “The thoughtfulness of his idea and the ultimate brilliance of the young student’s solution was something that we were all amazed by.”
According to the platform’s CEO, Whitehat Jr. believes, as an organization, that children already have a natural imagination and desire to think about possibilities and solutions where adults may instead think solely about constraints. “That’s why the Swasth-Bharat tech champ was so important to us,” Mukker points out.
Trupti Mukker and her team wanted, she goes on to explain, to allow India’s youngsters the opportunity to channel their ideas via a platform that gives them a voice to really convey something that they already know and care about. “All told, the entire team was absolutely amazed at the work and the depth of the solutions that the children shared with us,” adds the recently appointed Whitehat Jr. CEO.
Fifty Swasth-Bharat tech champ winners granted Whitehat Jr. scholarships
Following the recent Whitehat Jr. Swasth-Bharat tech champ event, a total of 50 winners from more than 10,000 participants were chosen to receive scholarships courtesy of the 1:1 learning platform. A follow-up virtual discussion has since been held, too, hosted by Indian tech guru, journalist, and keynote speaker Rajiv Makhni.
During the online discussion, Makhni echoed many of the sentiments of Whitehat Jr. CEO Trupti Mukker and her team. He also shared numerous examples of entries that impressed him, personally chatting to the individuals responsible in the process. All 50 winners were invited to join Makhni and Mukker for the follow-up, including young student Himakshi.
She came up with an app called Red Threat. An educational application, Red Threat was envisioned by the student to inform users on the topic of menstruation. “Himakshi went into great detail with her app and its solutions, executing it beautifully in the process,” said Makhni, having closely reviewed the application and all of the other winning entries.
Young Himakshi then took to the virtual discussion to explain how proud she felt to be among the Swasth-Bharat tech champ’s 50 winners. “My family, my friends, and everybody else is very impressed with me, that I actually did something,” she explained, “and not just limited to winning a competition, but doing something for the social good.”
Discussion host Rajiv Makhni then went on to further credit her app’s overall brilliance and well-thought-out, detailed, and textured nature. “Himakshi also went into the psychology of the matter, which I absolutely love,” the famous tech guru pointed out.
Rajiv Makhni praises the brilliant nature of winning hygiene and health app
As the follow-up Whitehat Jr. Swasth-Bharat tech champ virtual discussion continued, Rajiv Makhni subsequently looked at a number of other winning applications, including one called Garbage Collection Tracker. The work of young student Dhavnesh, Makhni promptly praised the brilliantly considered nature of the app.
“Dhavnesh’s solution addressed a problem that this country actually sees, especially rurally but also at an urban level and everywhere else, really,” pointed out the tech expert. Makhni even suggested that the application had the potential to change not just the country but also the world by simultaneously addressing a variety of health and wider hygiene problems.
Dhavnesh was then asked to briefly explain how he came up with his app idea. “One day, when I was going out, a lot of garbage was dropped beside an open plot, and I asked my dad why this happens,” he explained. “My dad told me that it happens because proper tracking of garbage collection is not done, which is what prompted me to come up with the idea for Garbage Collection Tracker,” Dhavnesh revealed.
Garbage Collection Tracker designer Dhavnesh, Red Threat creator Himakshi, and 48 other students now all have their prize of a scholarship courtesy of Whitehat Jr. to look forward to. Following the success of the recent Swasth-Bharat tech champ, the 1:1 learning platform’s team is understood to be working on a second such challenge, details of which will be announced in due course.