The education scenario has changed in India quite a lot in past many years and that too, not for good. Hailed as one of the best place to receive education in ancient times, today the youth of India is trying to get out of the country in order to receive a fair education if not the best.
Schools today are fancier than the five stars in India but have no emphasis on the real education. With theoretical subjects, students are forced to mug them all up. This scenario is also common in many engineering courses where students are studying certain subjects but have no associated practical labs.
Classroom lessons today don’t match with the real world scenario and in the end student is left with all the bookish knowledge which real world couldn’t care less about.
Seeing the current scenario of the education we decided to have a little interview with Mr. Apurva Muthe, an Indian student who is studying computer science in Weber State University, US, who created a learning chat bot called Tinker Bot.
Apurva comes from an Indian family and believes in free education. Not free as in term of money but pursuing something which actually interests the learner. For Apurva his interest happens to be in the computer and in creating new things.
He has been programming since he was 8 years old and no wonder that by today he has his own web company, an app called 'Kumbhmeal app' and recently he created a 'Semi-decisional Artificially Intelligent Chat Bot- Tinker Bot' which is geared towards changing and redefining the education system in India.
When we asked him how he manages all this he said it is not that hard because I am doing what I love and this is what keeps me moving forward.
He further told that he was not a meritorious student during the school days but computers interested him the most and he was the best in the class when it comes to the computers.
"I didn’t have had much time to spend on studies because I clearly believe that one must not waste their valuable time doing things which does not interest them rather enjoy their time doing things they love. For me it was hanging around my computers," he said.
The idea of creating Tinker bot appeared to him while he was pursuing his bachelor's in US where he was involved in the research related to the artificial intelligence and chat bots.
According to him the chat bot is geared towards changing the way students in India are educated. It removes the pain points of rote learning and helps them in learning new things related to the subjects which they might never learn in their syllabus. He believes that this is even better than learning through the video lessons.
"To overcome this pain point, I decided to build a chat bot which would completely change the way students are educated by going beyond the boring lectures and videos and also a platform where learners can learn new and interesting things that would never be taught in the syllabus".
For students interested in learning and not rotting he advised them to learn on their own and for those who are interested in programming here some his best references which Apurva himself used to learn programming in his early days: Code academy, free code camp, Udemy
His hopes for the tinker bot helping the students in India are high as he believes that this is a platform where educators and students can share the same platform in a friendly manner to teach and learn new things and subjects.
Currently Tinker bot is operating in India on Facebook and now the team is planning to launch it in Mexico in 2018.
For students who are interested in learning Computer Science he has the advice which makes sense. He said "I would like to tell that study Computer Science only if it interests you. Don’t just study for high salary jobs. And if, you are really interested then practice learning things or creating programs on your own. Don’t depend on colleges completely as in the end it's you who would write programs".
Before we left us to work on this other apps, he told us what he thinks about Brainbuxa. Its good portal with good reach that posts awesome blogs which really boosts one’s knowledge. Keep up the good work.
