My ATL Journey:)

Today I’m super exited to share my ATL journey from scratch and the tips all the readers will get are the icing on the cake. Let’s begin the party.

It all began when one day I was shooting a video for a science competition in ATL(note: until that time I was an outsider-non ATL student) and seeing an unfamiliar face delivering her idea confidently on-camera, our ATL Incharge Ashish Sir asked me ‘You are not in ATL?’ I said ‘Yeah I’m not’ We talked a minute or so and he left me with a thought ‘Why don’t you join?’ Now here comes the turning point as this question made me think over and in 2018 end I deliberately sat for an interview to enter ATL and honestly I myself have no idea why I was away from ATL community before this but I’m telling the reason I came here is only that one question and therefore Tip 1: Listen to your teachers, In fact to add up I would say be it any academic or skill subject teacher or your sports coach, to begin with you must first respect your teachers as then only you’ll be able to truly gain the knowledge and wisdom they have in store for you , then have faith and follow them in whatever they say you should do.

Obviously as you can guess I cleared the interview and entered the ATL and today I’m writing as an ATL student but just when I started off I had no idea of how to execute my ideas, those random ideas I got while studying right before serious exam when my mind is roaming and is doing exactly what it should not or even while just casually going in a normal day, I used to write all these ideas at a dedicated place in my ATL diary. I never thought I’ll be able to bring them out in real life, to me all them seemed to be was an alien I wanted to speak to without knowing their language.

Now at the same time, in the background of my story we had an ATL Fest coming up so I discussed all my ideas with my ATL mates and asked them if they feel any of it was worth or practically possible and surprisingly we agreed upon to make up Railway Accident Prevention System which involved using connection of sensors, LED, buzzer and a basic circuit which would inform the train driver of the humans coming in way of railway track and thus preventing accidents.

Easy to read right? Of course, It wasn’t technically too complex yet new and solved an unsolved problem and hence we won 3rd prize in the fest. Did you notice a change in my mindset from line one to last of this para? From looking to my ideas as alien we went onto winning, this brings me to Tip 2: Work in a team

As working in a team you get different perspectives and reduced share of work, if not a large team then at least always choose 2 instead of 1 as remember:

T ogether

E veryone

A chieves

More

Also not to forget, during the tinkering fest itself I got the opportunity to be one of the panelists representing the ATL student and since all in while parallelly I was also participating in non ATL science fairs as well so I got the ATL Innovator Award 2019 in class 10, and I wish whoever reading be the next Awardee and I’ll be really glad if you’ll say I inspired you, it’s good to be inspired as even I was also pumped up when I saw my seniors receiving the same award.

Well, fast forward to class 11th because back then in 2019 I had minimized taking part in competitions as 10th  boards were approaching, as we all know our studies in 2020 went online, this was a typical lockdown day set up where we- me and Khanak were casually chatting and she said ‘Read about Science Exhibition 2020 on Broadcast? Let’s take part, what do you say?’ We both chuckled at this as just day before we had decided that we will be “serious” students now as we are too grown up, like every other teenager we thought 11thies especially science students ought to focus only on studies, little did we know that just slack of few minutes discussion would change our decision and not only did we participate but also won first prize in our category. With this sentence I come up to 3rd Tip: Listen to your friends

Take your friends along with you in all your ordeals possible, either they will be the best team mate you can have as you know and understand each other already or what'll happen is that your team members will ultimately become your friends, both the ways being understanding and listening more helps! As for me may be I could not have started all together on this project for which later we won***(read more to find out XD) had I had not listened to my friend, I mean it was as simple as joining something because your friend is insisting otherwise at that time I was very much convinced into giving up taking part in competitions completely as I was a Bio Student in 11th-pandemic year_we all know how much stiffling our studies went!) Therefore sometimes it's good to listen to your friends

We had made Smart water Taps(click on the photo to see full slides)

which would shut off automatically once the bucket(any size) under the tap would fill completely. After some days, this time I asked her ‘Let’s take the same project in ATL Marathon?’ She definitely said yes and BOOM we got selected in top 150 teams which gave us the opportunity to be mentored under AIC Manipal University Jaipur , we attended mind-blowing sessions on Marketing, Financial Modelling, Prototyping, Intellectual Property Rights and some yummy nuances you must try to experience.

At the end of this 3 month mentorship programme we submitted our pitch deck and video with positive hopes. Taking school classes, attending programme sessions and then working on the project ,discussing things over zoom calls, being glued to the screen all the day, we were very busy those days  so submission of pitch deck was a sigh of relief but before we could feel the void of a busy schedule, our hands got full again, we got a mail stating that were selected in Top 51. When we got this news  our happiness knew no bounds, almost walking on cloud 11, we were struck up by the fact that there was an interview the next day and we were back to ground. With high adrenaline we some how managed to finish off the prep and slept on time on that night of inevitable nervousness and next morning gave our interview with a smile which calls us to 4th Tip: Always make sure you sleep during golden hours

 

And team members of Top 150 teams had a chance to apply for AIM Sirius 3.0 in which  24 students from India were to be selected, 3 each in 8 different focus areas to attend an educational 14 day camp in Sirius Centre Sochi Russia, I had applied and got selected for the focus area Sports, believe me it was no less then going on a resort and I suppose if not all everybody reading should take this tip for sure: Enjoy the process

Starting from Nov. 07, 2020 AIM Sirius 3.0 ended on Nov. 21, 2020, exactly the day after when final result of ATL Marathon 2019 were announced, our team Project Buddies came first in Top 20 which was so surreal that I actually thought it to be a dream until it sink in.

After 2-3 days of this, I got a call during my online classes asking for my nod for me to attend a Panel Discussion SheStem: Women leading the Way on Dec. 07,2020 wherein 8-10 students from India were selected which was organized by AIM in collaboration with Embassy of Sweden during Sweden India Memorial Week celebrating Women Leaders in Science and Technology. Yes I did attend it too and charmingly added another beautiful experience in my reasons of smile. Another Tip from what I’ve been doing all this while: Give 100% to whatever comes your way

Never ever complain in your life, If you want your destiny to be best, give your best to what destiny has given you. I do believe in destiny , God gave me teachers and friends, I owe so much to them, I can't even imagine what my life would be without them.

As you can notice Panel Discussion was in December, Commenting on end I must add ,year 2020 was fits and starts for everyone including me, I’m no more virtuous, there was a time I was brooding over the entire existence of the pandemic and badly wanted everything to be normal again still I gradually changed my perspective and yes rightly proved to myself that since life goes on despite everything, we should also never stop chasing our dreams. I hope I set an example to those around me as well. I’ve been blessed and am grateful to the whole ATL Community, and from my experience I think it’s something every girl and boy should step in. Do join ATL Community despite what class you are in, the adventure awaits you and if you are already in then feel privileged and use the resources to the best

A bonus tip: Show gratitude towards everything as happiness comes from within once you are grateful 

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Important links: (Come back to this blog when you are participating in ATL Marathon or related competitions)

sejda.com for pdf editing-bestest ever! We used it for editing Lean Model Canvas Template

piktochart.com I don't use it frequently but I used it for making pitch deck(ppt) for ATL Marathon 2019 finals

canva.com & wps.com so much in one :D(photos, videos even pdfs & ppts-editor, free templates)

aim.gov.in I use it especially for ATL Modules to gain knowledge.

My blog - It's a knowledge hub for youth, joking! XD Try when free, you'll enjoy;)

See this list also for more resources from AIM ATL

We used this format for research