BITS Pilani held six-day young entrepreneurs’ bootcamp for school students

NEW DELHI: Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) Pilani conducted an intensive six-day immersive young entrepreneurs’ bootcamp (YEB) for school students of classes 9 to 12.

This programme aims to help students experience technology-driven innovation and the entrepreneurial ecosystem to understand entrepreneurship through interactions with successful start-up founders at its Pilani campus. A total of 51 students selected from numerous applicants across the country went through a vigorous process to get selected for this opportunity.

During the bootcamp, students had an opportunity to interact with industry veterans start-up founders, BITS Pilani alumni, and BITS Pilani chancellor and chairman of Aditya Birla Group, Kumar Mangalam Birla. Multiple industry professionals shared their journeys.

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These interactions will help students to get first-hand accounts of how to build a start-up and what to expect in the life of an entrepreneur, how to define and solve problems from a customer perspective, and to work on a business plan. Students also learnt about the emerging opportunities in drone theory, innovations in biotechnology, and disruptive trends in technology such as the Internet of things (IoT) and its applications, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), and design thinking tools.

On the very last day of the bootcamp, the students were tested on their creative problem-solving skills and were asked to pitch an innovation of their own. Students received certificates for their participation and contribution in the bootcamp. BITS Pilani is planning to hold the YEB programme at BITS Hyderabad campus in December, 2022.

Commenting on the bootcamp BITS Pilani director, Sudhir kumar Barai, said: ‘‘BITS Pilani, as an institution, is known for creating entrepreneurs. BITS alumni have produced 10 unicorns, including 1 decacorn amongst 107 Unicorns in India. The founders of acclaimed unicorns like Swiggy, Big Basket, Groww, Zeta and Postman are all alumni of this institute. The idea behind starting this bootcamp was to ignite the minds of school children and introduce them to the world of entrepreneurship and innovation at an early stage. Interactions with entrepreneurs, our faculty, and students would have opened new thought streams for their career paths.’’