Goodbye 2025 and Hello 2026!

 In July 2025, Delhi Government launched the NEEEV Program for Delhi Government schools. NEEEV stands for New Era of Entrepreneurial Ecosystem and Vision and the aim is to develop innovation, problem-solving and self-reliance among schoolchildren.

I came to know about this program in November 2025, when the Head of School of Government Girls Secondary School, Haiderpur - Ms. Parul Gupta contacted me to deliver a lecture  at her school addressing more than 500 girl students from classes VIII, IX and X. Parul is a postgraduate in physics from Delhi University and is very passionate about science pedagogy.

 

 My lecture and demonstration at GGSS Haiderpur was a cracking success and Parul shared information about me with other Delhi Government school HoSs. I immediately got requests from 4 other schools for similar lecture demonstrations - Government Girls Senior Secondary School, Jahangirpuri, Government Girls Secondary School, Majlis Park, Government Boys Senior Secondary School, Shalimar Bagh, and Sarvodaya Co-Ed Vidyalaya, Mukhmelpur. 

 

 

 

 

During these 5 lecture demonstrations, I was able to influence more than 1500 students! 

Subsequently, Parul approached me to conduct hands on workshops for her Class VIII, IX and X students too, which I, together with few of my NSUT students as mentors, did on 9th, 11th and 19th December. 

But let me digress a little bit here. I want to talk about the influence of AI tools in 2025. I have benefited immensely by using ChatGPT - for devising course syllabi, for help in writing few books and even some research papers. But in December 2025, I came across another AI tool - Google NotebookLM and I was totally bowled over! Unlike ChatGPT, NotebookLM works best with content you feed it and it can generate reports, audio and video podcasts, flashcards, quizzes and MCQs based on these contents. The contents could be audio recordings, YouTube links, documents etc. I fed it the YouTube videos of my NPTEL course on Introduction to Embedded System Design  and I could get it to generate textbook style reports, podcasts and MCQs - totally awesome. 

But more awesomeness awaited me - back to the hands-on workshops for Parul's school girls. For these workshops, I curated an inexpensive kit which allowed the girls to perform a few physics experiments - build a homopolar motor and perform activities around this motor, build an electromagnet and perform many activities, experience Eddy current assisted magnetic braking and combustion demonstrations. These workshops lasted 2 to 2-1/2 hours and I recorded the entire audio interactions of couple of these workshops. I then fed the audio recording to NotebookLM and asked it to generate a report. It did so, quite brilliantly. More awesomely, I asked it to create an audio podcast and that too in Hindi! which I then converted to  YouTube videos for larger dissemination. Check it out here and here.

The year 2025 has been very fruitful, not the very least because of the impact of AI tools on our education system. Together with my students, I did many interesting projects which should see the light of the day as published research papers soon. I conducted many workshops for school and college students too. 

The impact of AI tools, I feel is a double edged sword. As I discussed in my talk in a conference organised by Dr. Savita Roy, in the hands of students, these AI tools hold an evil power to dumb them down and totally destroy their learning and lead to academic atrophy. In the hands of educators like me, it can provide a huge effort multiplier. I hope, we the educators can use these AI tools to our advantage and make the best use by utilizing their automation potential and at the same time, guide the students appropriately towards advancing meaningful learning.

 Goodbye 2025 and Hello 2026, I so look forward to what you have to offer!

 

PS: No AI tools were used to write this blog. 😀 

 

Remote Switch

Last week, Netaji Subhas University of Technology (NSUT) was preparing for the Convocation of the graduating batch of 2025. One of the requirements was a reliable and simple interface to trigger the inauguration videos at the hands of the Chief Guest, the Hon’ble Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, who also serves as the Chancellor of NSUT.

I offered to design and fabricate a custom remote switch using the rapid prototyping facilities available at the Centre for Electronics Design and Technology (CEDT). My student, Harshvardhan Gupta, volunteered to take up the fabrication and testing. Within a week, the design was finalized, fabricated, and thoroughly tested.

On 13 December, the device was used by the Lieutenant Governor and the Chief Minister of Delhi in the presence of other distinguished dignitaries.

This outcome was possible due to the strong institutional support provided by our Vice Chancellor,  Anand Srivastava. 

For those interested in the Remote Switch, here are the details. 

 The circuit is really very simple - an Arduino, an HC05 Bluetooth interface and a suitable power supply together with pushbuttons to trigger the switch and LEDs for status. A python script on a laptop received suitable codes from the triggered Arduino and played the requisite video. The breadboard version was tested in a day. 

 The devil was in the details. Which power supply? Which pushbuttons? Which box to enclose it in? 

I wanted to keep the power supply very simple. For that we measured the current consumption of the Bluetooth module. The datasheet says 30-40 mA but in reality, it consumes ~200mA when sending data which is quite infrequent. So, instead of a lithium battery and it's retinue of boost converter, charging circuit, USB interface, I opted for a 9V alkaline battery connected to the Vin input of the Arduino. A good (Duracell) battery has ~600 mAh capacity that would last more than 10 hours in the circuit. 

 Next dilemma was which pushbutton? I didn't want a simple pushbutton that one could accidentally press several times. I decided to use an emergency stop switch. Normally it is used to turn off the power to an equipment or machinery in the case of an emergency, it has to be armed once it is pressed - perfect for our needs. A regular,  large pushbutton was used to cycle through the options for the videos and the selected option was  indicated on LEDs. 

 We found a large IP65 capable plastic box in the lab big enough to accommodate the circuit and some more. The circuit was fabricated on a zero board as there was no time to fabricate a custom PCB. The LEDs were hotglued to the box (not a good idea but works in the short term as a prototype). The decals for the box were 3D printed (thanks to Naman Puri for his help) and stuck with drops of Elfy. 

Once fully assembled, the Remote Switch was extensively tested for range and battery endurance. It was also tested many times at the venue during rehearsal day and the actual day of the event. The anxiety such an event creates, is simply unbelievable. Thankfully, the choices I made for the design and extensive testing it underwent, ensured that it worked flawlessly.

Apart from its main purpose, this project helped me teach the intricacies to a budding engineer and that to me as an educator is deeply satisfying.