Board Games are Pass Camps in Artificial Intelligence hit among Kids

24th Apr, 2018

THANE : Gone are the days when board games like ludo, scrabble, monopoly and the likes used to be a favourite past time for kids during vacations. In this technology-driven age, tec-based toys modelled on artificial intelligence is believed to be gaining a lot of popularity among kids.

In fact, a string of summer camps and workshops giving children hands on training into artificial intelligence have come up in the lake city. These camps train the curious young minds coding, game designing, how to make machines, electric circuits, deep learning algorithms and much more.

Jinesh Shah, co-founder of one such camp , said, “Ever since our inception in 2010, we have seen a rise in the number of kids wanting to learn robotics and other practical learning concepts. We started with 120 students enrolled over 10 schools and five centers. Today, we are training 1,500 students across 30 schools. Initially, we offered two programs for students between 10 to 14 years. Now, we have seven programmes that cater to teaching practical engineering, electronics, robotics, 3-D printing and game designing.”

From building devices like catapult, designing swinging bridges, understanding different types of circuits and gears to curating a mobile phone or a personal computer game, the millennial are going completely high-tech. Eight-year-old Nishta Shah who had attend a five-day course said, “I learnt some basic working models and machines. With the help of other team mates, we learnt how to make a catapult, a swing bridge and basic fundamentals of electronics and electricity. We were first shown how to go about with it and later had to do it on our own.”

While some like Shah are joining classes in a bid to explore the machine world, many are teaching themselves through an array of online tutorials and websites.

Dinesh Tavsalkar, a freelance technical trainer in game development, robotics and Android development from Mumbai, said, “Students who don’t have much time to spare and attend classes prefer subscribing to online learning websites that teach game application coding, which is the most crucial, difficult and creative element in the process of game development. They opt for freelancing whereby they sell their products to game companies in India, abroad or on the web. This is a trend right now and it is picking up.”

 

Source : timesofindia.indiatimes.com