Design Thinking for STEM Competition, Viksit Bharat Buildathon 2025

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Dr. Prashant R. Nair, IEEE STEM Champion and Member, IEEE Pre-University Education Coordination Committee (PECC), conducted a mentoring session and 'Design Thinking' workshop for 100+ students of grades 9 and 10 for the national-level STEM Competition, Viksit Bharat Buildathon 2025 at Rathinam International Public School (RIPS), Coimbatore, on 13 October 2025.  Over 3 lakh schools participated simultaneously in the Viksit Bharat Buildathon 2025, India’s largest synchronized innovation hackathon for school students. The event started with a live telecast and inauguration by Union Education Minister Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, who inaugurated the Viksit Bharat Buildathon (VBB) 2025, at New Delhi. 

While addressing, Shri Pradhan congratulated and complimented the 3 lakh+ schools and participating students from across India for the enthusiastic participation in this mega school innovation initiative. He expressed his confidence that the innovative ideas germinated from here will pave the way for creating new global models and finding solutions to pressing domestic and global challenges. The Minister stated that a Viksit and Samriddh Bharat will be built on the shoulders of our talented school students. He emphasized that Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s vision of a developed India by 2047 will be realized through transformative efforts like VBB, and urged students to play an active role in shaping the nation’s future.

Dr. Prashant R. Nair provided an overview of the VBB, which included the participation of teams of 3–5 to ideate and build prototypes around four themes- Atmanirbhar Bharat (Self-reliant India), Swadeshi (Local products), Vocal for Local, and Samriddhi. He then stressed the importance of design thinking for innovation and ideation. He mentioned the 5 steps in design thinking, namely empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test. He cited several examples of successful adoption of design thinking, such as Oral-B B. GE, and Airbnb. The next 15 days would be used to design prototypes and submit them for the competition. Dr. Prashant R. Nair also stressed upon IEEE TryEngineering and its vast resources, which could be helpful for developing innovative prototypes

 

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• Welcome by Ms. Ashmi R., Principal, Rathinam International Public School, Coimbatore
• Live telecast of the inauguration of the Viksit Bharat Buildathon 2025 by Indian Union education minister
• About the Viksit Bharat Buildathon 2025 by Dr. Prashant R. Nair, IEEE STEM Champion
• Design Thinking workshop by Dr. Prashant R. Nair, IEEE STEM Champion

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