Education Technology | Innovations and Insights - Edinbox

Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) has rolled out 'She Innovates' as a decisive step to encourage women-led innovations. It is a women-oriented entrepreneur training programme for female engineering students in the second last year from the colleges affiliated to the university. The training programme was first launched as part of the Visvesvaraya Research and Innovation Foundation (VRIF) and is expected to university train 4,000 students, with around 100 of them finally selected start-ups launching Nearly 3,400 students have registered, but the number of participants from each college has been capped at 80. Students will be

engaged in a 3-months intensive training program, which will be conducted by a group of corporate and institutional partners including Wipro, UN Women, Karnataka Digital Economy Mission, and various TiE chapters from Hubballi Bengaluru Mangaluru, and Mysuru, who will guide them on skills building through entrepreneurial activities, industry exposure, and last, but not the least, solving issues pertaining to the community through problem-solving. After the training, the participants will be challenged through a hackathon, during which they would be asked to come up with solutions to the problems as they identify in rural locations. According to the officials of the university, the activity can be seen as a final-year internship combining theoretical learning with practical innovation.

Santosh Ittanagi, who leads doing and operations at VRIF, stated the programme targets students truly dedicated to starting businesses. The goal is to select 100 individuals ready to take risks and create new projects. Entrepreneurship involves uncertainty, so families will be involved to help students get needed backing. He emphasized that student support is a key part of the process.

VTU Vice-Chancellor S Vidyashankar pointed out that about half of the universitys 80,000 students each year are women. The push seeks to identify their talent and offer them advantage in engineering projects. Rural students will receive extra attention during the selection. He said this helps level the playing field.

The event also includes a message about job readiness. At a meeting with IEEE, the VC stressed education should match real-world job demands. As jobs are available, there isnt enough talent trained for actual workplace needs. This programme aims to change that.

Through She Innovates, VTU wants women engineers to go from looking for jobs to creating them. The effort supports India's

The Indian Institute of Technology Madras has created an open-source edtech platform called EduReach - a platform aimed at facilitating digital learning in schools that have limited infrastructure. The platform, which is developed by the Wadhwani School of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, adopts a modular approach, whereby educational institutions can purchase only the parts they need, thereby reducing expenses and allowing a gradual transition to digital education. A specially made version of EduReach was being used by the Tamil Nadu School Education Department throughout the last academic year to conduct smart classrooms' weekly assessments in 3,860 government schools, benefiting more than 19 lakh students. The platform is a course content management system together with web templates, analytics dashboards, role-based access controls, and an automated assessment toolbox that supports paper design versioning allocation, and offline question creation. This endeavor is projected to promote broad accessibility to digital educational resources which are scalable and flexible, particularly in areas that are often neglected.

Modular Design to Reduce Costs

According to the institute, EduReach enables a flexible and cost-effective transition to digital education by allowing institutions to selectively integrate tools such as content management systems or assessment modules. This approach is particularly targeted at government and low-resource schools that face barriers in adopting comprehensive edtech systems.

Deployment Across Tamil Nadu Schools

A customized version of EduReach was deployed in collaboration with the Tamil Nadu School Education Department during the previous academic year. The platform supported weekly assessments in smart classrooms across 3,860 government schools, reaching over 19 lakh students.

Key Features and Tools

EduReach currently offers:

• A course content management system with web-based templates
• Analytics dashboards for tracking student performance
• Role-based access controls for administrators, teachers, and students
• An automated assessment toolbox, including paper design, versioning, allocation, and offline question creation

Focus on Inclusive Digital Education

The initiative reflects a broader push to bridge the digital divide in school education by creating scalable, adaptable solutions that can function even in low-resource environments.

With its open-source framework, EduReach is expected to be further adopted and customised by educational institutions across regions, supporting more inclusive and accessible digital learning ecosystems.

Chandrayaan-3's data has revealed a highly surprising and electrically potent lunar plasma environment near the Moon's south pole, which leaves behind very old orbital models for plasma environment evolution. It is a big breakthrough that is changing the scientific understanding of the lunar surface environment.

The RAMBHA-LP (Langmuir Probe) on the Vikram lander, as per the statement from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), recorded electron densities ranging from 380 to 600 particles per cubic centimetre and an exceptionally high temperature level of 8,000 Kelvin during its period of operation from August to September 2023.

Performing such measurements for the first time, directly on the Moon's south polar region at Shiv Shakti Point, this is a big leap forward in science since it is a big step forward in comparison to the earlier indirect estimations.

A Moon More “Electrified” Than Expected

Scientists say the findings point to a highly responsive plasma environment influenced by multiple space-weather factors, including solar wind interactions, ultraviolet radiation-induced surface charging, and secondary electrons from Earth’s magnetotail.

This complex interplay creates what researchers describe as an “electrified zone”, where plasma conditions fluctuate significantly depending on solar activity. The presence of molecular ions from trace gases like carbon dioxide and water further adds to the region’s dynamic nature.

Implications for Future Lunar Missions

The discovery carries major implications for upcoming lunar exploration efforts, including NASA’s Artemis programme and international collaborations targeting the Moon’s south pole.

A highly active plasma environment can directly impact:

• Lunar dust behaviour, including electrostatic levitation that may affect instruments and habitats
• Communication systems, with potential signal disruptions or blackouts
• Surface operations, especially for rovers and long-duration human missions

By providing “ground truth” data, Chandrayaan-3 helps refine models that were previously based largely on indirect observations, improving mission planning and safety protocols.

Besides their scientific importance, the findings indicate a new phase in lunar explorationa transition from mere symbolic landings to establishing a continuous presence.

Gaining knowledge about the plasma environment is imperative nowadays for the creation of lunar habitats, electric power generation and distribution systems, and extraterrestrial communication networks.

While the Indian Space Research Organisation is still deeply engaged in the thorough data analysis, the results set India among the pioneers of lunar surface sciencereleasing knowledge that will probably be a major influence in the global space exploration advancement for the next ten years.

The very thought of the Moons south pole as a mere landing target is rapidly fading and it is now being visualized as an intricate, electrically active boundary that is calling for intensified scientific examination if we want to be able to consider it a second home for mankind.

Vidya Shakti provides free online instruction of math, science, and English to rural students after school hours and has a plan to add 100 more rural centres for 10,000 additional students.

AI-Powered Assessment: Students' handwritten work is photographed and graded by AI, which also allows for live monitoring of performance and provision of personalized learning support. Advanced EdTech Tools: EdTech platforms like EduReach can instantly provide the quiz, dashboard, and interactive interface and have other AI features like automated question generation to make the teacher and student experience more enjoyable and effective.

For many students in rural Tamil Nadu, clearing a doubt in math or science after school often means waiting until the next day’s class. IIT Madras has been working on that for a while now through its Vidya Shakti free digital education initiative, where teachers teach science, maths and English to students online after school hours.

“The programme has become so popular that we plan to expand it to reach 10,000 more students with 100 more rural interaction centres next academic year,” says Nagarajan Pichumani, project director, VIdya Shakti, IIT Madras Pravartak Technologies Foundation.

“These live online classes will help students clarify doubts. Teachers will also explain difficult topics using virtual reality,” says Pichumani.

In the coming year, the assessment will focus on writing skills. “Teachers will dictate the questions, and students will write their answers. These will be photographed and evaluated using AI tools. The results will then be sent to coordinators at the centres to track performance and help improve student learning,” he adds. IIT Madras uses digital platforms such as EduReach, a novel edtech programme developed by Wadhwani School of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (WSAI) for Vidya Sakthi.

The programme caters to seven lakh students across the country. “We want to reach out to 11 lakh children in 11,000 schools across 10 states.”

The platform also features instant quiz assessment and digital question rendering. A performance dashboard allows administrators to view state-level, district-level and student-level trends, strengthening data-driven governance in school systems.

“Several advanced capabilities are in progress, including teacher and learner feedback systems, interactive interfaces and AI-powered tools such as automated question generation and the integration of assessments into educational videos for real-time evaluation,” says Nandan Sudarsanam, project coordinator, EduReach.

“These innovations are built to enhance usability and scalability, supporting both teachers and learners in navigating digital education with greater ease.”

IIT Madras plans to host a day-long workshop to familiarise educators, administrators and policy stakeholders with the platform’s features.

As artificial intelligence is rapidly changing different industries worldwide, a new education project is putting Kolkata and nearby areas at the center of West Bengal's technological learning movement.

The basic course on Artificial Intelligence will cover over 30,000 students in 129 schools throughout the state, with many schools in Kolkata and nearby districts as the main beneficiaries.

Computer Shiksha, a non-profit organization based in Gurgaon which has been actively involved in spreading digital literacy in schools since 2012, is releasing the programme. The project is meant to bring students, especially the ones from financially less fortunate families, to understand basics of artificial intelligence and latest digital technologies.

Founder Rakesh Suri mentioned that the course will start next month and will rely on self-learning digital modules that have been specifically designed to make AI concepts easy for school students. Since we are living in the age of AI, we thought it would be best to include it in our computer literacy programme, Suri remarked. He also mentioned that the organisation has developed 12 video lessons, each of around 35 minutes, which cover the basics of artificial intelligence.

Kolkata and Neighbouring Districts Lead Participation

Kolkata and districts around it are not only leading but outpacing others in terms of schools participating in the programme.

The organisation's statistics have revealed that North 24 Parganas tops the list with 32 schools, Howrah is next with 17, and Kolkata ranks third with 16 schools.

According to education experts, it is only natural that the metro area of Kolkata is dominating the map since it is here where the need for a hand-in-hand connection between the conventional schooling and the emerging technology ecosystems is growing. Besides, these ecosystems are being developed mainly around the urban centres of eastern India.

Bridging the Digital Divide Through Technology

The course will be distributed through pen drives containing the video modules, enabling schools with limited internet access to still conduct digital learning sessions. The NGO has earlier introduced “lab and magic box” computer solutions to help schools lacking infrastructure adopt digital education tools.

Beyond West Bengal, Computer Shiksha has supported over 5,660 schools across India, certifying nearly 1.9 lakh students and training more than 6,700 teachers in basic computer education.

Expanding the AI Learning Ecosystem

The organisation now plans to expand the reach of its free AI courseware by collaborating with NGOs, foundations, industrial training institutes, and teacher training centres. The learning content can be integrated into mobile apps, smart boards, computer labs, and other digital platforms.

Suri said the broader mission is to ensure that students graduating from Indian schools are not left behind in the technology revolution.

“Our goal is to reach millions of students who may otherwise leave school without learning even basic computing skills,” he said.

For Kolkata’s students, the initiative could mark an early step into the world of artificial intelligence and emerging technologies, potentially shaping a new generation of tech-ready learners in eastern India.

Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) has launched Quantum-Hub@MAHE (Q-HUB@MAHE) at the Manipal Institute of Technology in Bengaluru to strengthen India's indigenous quantum hardware ecosystem in line with the National Quantum Mission.

The hub is designed as a design-to-deployment platform that will bring together quantum hardware experimentation, deep-tech startup incubation, workforce training, testing infrastructure and translational research.

The facility will initially deploy a 25-qubit dilution refrigeration system for advanced training and experimentation. This will form the first phase of a roadmap aimed at scaling the platform to 150-1,000+ qubit industrial-grade quantum systems.

Unlike vendor-locked platforms, the hub will operate on an open-architecture model, allowing support for indigenous component development and hardware integration.

MAHE has partnered with global and national organisations including QuantrolOx, Bluefors, QBLOX, ConScience and Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC).

The initiative aims to train 100 quantum engineers by December 2026 and is expected to serve as a national testing and measurement gateway.The physical facility is scheduled to be inaugurated in September 2026.