At first the thought behind TinkerSpace Kochi sounds Utopian and the motto — studying via group — farfetched. The form that makes one suppose “no way”. But, in truth, for the previous three years, since 2022, this area for tech college students/ young innovators from throughout the State has been open 24/7 facilitating exploration, providing hands-on expertise and giving the braveness to develop new know-how with out charging a penny.
Making the area much more distinctive is that it’s the nation’s first such initiative. And this area isn’t just for engineers, it’s anyone who needs to be a maker, innovate and/or upskill.
Tucked away in a nook the place Thrikkakara and Kalamassery meet, off the Seaport-Airport Road, in Kochi, TinkerSpace aka the Hacker Space (Kerala’s first) stands out, actually, beacon-like at nightfall when techies — budding and lovers (learn makers) — get collectively to work. Inside, the makers are both hunched over their laptops or accessing the GPU (graphics processing unit, entry to which is free right here) to develop AI fashions or working on the Maker’s Table or the 3-D printer or concerned in discussions that pivot know-how.
TinkerSpace is a component of a bigger technological initiative Tinker Hub, which is a non-profit ‘open innovation lab’ that has been energetic for the previous decade in Kerala.
By college students, for college students
Built on the 4 pillars of studying, group, doing good and alternatives, the Tinker Hub group, immediately, has a presence in 65-odd campuses in the State which embody faculties comparable to RIT Kottayam, College of Engineering (Thiruvananthapuram), Government Engineering College (Idukki), LBS Kasaragod, Kannur University College, Farook College (Kozhikode), Government Engineering College (Thrissur), TKM College (Kollam), Model Engineering College and CUSAT (Kochi) amongst others.
The 3-D printed fashions.
| Photo Credit:
THULASI KAKKAT
TinkerSpace will get round 100-120 every day check-ins, with some young makers coming from out of the town, “there is a student who comes here, from Thiruvananthapuram, on weekends to work on the GPU. He comes on Saturdays, works on his project and returns on Sunday,” says Mehar MP, CEO of Tinker Hub. There are bean baggage to crash if one is drained, a canteen area and even the ability to bathe if one stays over to work.
The figures communicate for the 29,000-odd members robust group, which has hosted greater than 1,000 occasions and facilitated many different tech-driven alternatives for young makers and tech lovers, with an emphasis on making area for girls in tech.
Co-founders Mehar MP and Abid Aboobacker at TinkerSpace.
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THULASI KAKKAT
The concept took seed greater than a decade in the past when the founders — Mehar MP, Abid Aboobacker, Nidhiya Raj and Praveen Sridhar — have been nonetheless in school. Abid, a scholar of English Literature, was the one non-engineer of the 4. The others have been batchmates at Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT).
It all began whereas volunteering at Mozilla Maker Party at CUSAT in 2014. An annual international marketing campaign, the Maker Party, was meant to show net literacy and digital abilities via community-run occasions. It was very totally different from the standard, classroom expertise of studying; an concept that resonated with the batchmates who would later go on to discovered Tinker Hub. The taking part college students might entry, discover, watch and expertise a wider vary of matters and know-how.
“We had around 4,000 participants. They had many questions, saw how things could be done in real time. For instance, seeing robots respond as they watched!” remembers Mehar, a pc science engineer and CEO of Tinker Hub Foundation, which facilitates TinkerSpace. It opened their eyes to how know-how could possibly be a gamechanger that would actually change lives. Buoyed by the overwhelming response of the occasion and the curiosity of the scholars, they realised they have been on to one thing worthwhile and significant.
The Maker’s Table at TinkerSpace.
| Photo Credit:
THULASI KAKKAT
It thus grew to become the Tinker Hub group in 2015, functioning out of CITTIC, the incubation hub of CUSAT. The evenings have been alive with discussions and change of concepts, giving college students a peek into turning into makers and what might be achieved. It was registered as a society in 2016.
Free data sans paywalls
They depend the late laptop programme/hacktivist Aaron Swartz as one among their greatest inspirations; particularly his ‘Guerilla Open Access Manifesto’, an open entry motion, which argued for entry to scientific analysis materials and any such knowledge sans paywalls and different related boundaries that deny/stop entry.
Which, Mehar reiterates, is the Tinker Hub philosophy: “There should not be a paywall between people and knowledge. Knowledge should be free.”
Those preliminary years have been heady, regardless of the constraints of working out of an area which got here with limitations which included pockets of knowledge connectivity. It was a time when the startup scene was choosing steam, it was all about constructing apps and extra ‘making’.
Despite all that was taking place below Tinker Hub, it led to introspection. Says Mehar, “We couldn’t help wondering if we were able to do things because we were in Kochi, with our easy access to resources.”
Tinker Hub encourages self-learning and peer-mentoring.
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THULASI KAKKAT
It was time to check the mannequin in faculties away from the Tinker Hub turf. “Our first batch of students (part of the Tinker Hub community) were at RIT Kottayam and government colleges in Thalassery. It was nothing fancy, just a bunch of kids hanging out in the college canteen, talking about and exchanging ideas on tech. Things started happening for the kids — Google scholarships, tech experts visiting those campuses!”
It opened their eyes to the potential they might unlock; in addition to, Tinker Hub work was getting seen, it received its first group funding from Kerala Start-Up Mission.
An iteration of Kerala’s library tradition
In 2020, Mehar met tech-entrepreneur and investor Kailash Nadh, CTO of Zerodha, who urged the opportunity of a everlasting bodily area accessible to college students. To reduce a protracted story brief, TinkerSpace was thrown open to the general public in 2022. TinkerSpace is to not be blended up with a co-working area.
Mehar calls it an iteration of Kerala’s distinctive library tradition, solely that it’s an open area for know-how.
The not-for-profit hub for innovation can be Kerala’s first hackerspace.
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THULASI KAKKAT
Apart from workshops and hackathons, the TinkerSpace calendar of actions consists of AI Wednesdays when college students get to be taught concerning the newest in AI, whereas on Maker Thursdays makers can construct stuff, there’s even a workshop — Kutty Makers — for children from eight to 18 to discover their abilities in electronics, robotics, programming, 3-D modelling and extra. Industrial visits and workshops by topic consultants are thrown in aside from related occasions organised by others.
When science and know-how intersect
The TinkerSpace/Tinker Hub agenda is multilayered, it isn’t solely about creating abilities of coding or AI or creating apps, however the members of the group are additionally inspired to discover the intersectionality of know-how and society.
The Surgical IntraOP Automation Hackathon, hosted by Tinker Hub in August, was Kerala’s first medico-tech hackathon which had medical professionals and college students of medication workforce up with tech consultants to construct smarter instruments for surgical procedure. AI researchers, roboticists and {hardware} engineers labored collectively searching for tech-based options. Another was on justice innovation in affiliation with Agami, is a non-profit which works in the direction of innovation in legislation and justice.
Earlier this 12 months, it hosted a hackathon, Tink-Her-Hack 2.0 for girls which noticed the participation of three,000-odd girls from varied components of Kerala. This is simply one of many women-exclusive initiatives to empower girls in tech. The No Internet Day meant makers needed to construct with out entry to, effectively, the Net. “The makers had to think fundamentally…for instance build a website without the Net!” says Mehar.
Terms comparable to peer-driven and mentor-guided kind a big a part of the Tinker Hub vocabulary, which connects with the opposite concept that the non-profit derives from – group.
These services come at a value, which ends up in the query about funding. “It comes from the contributions from start-ups, the founders…anybody who wants to contribute,” Mehar informs. The funding companions are Samagata Foundation and FOSS (Free and Open Software Source) United.
Rishi Krishna, a member of the Tinker Hub group at TinkerSpace.
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THULASI KAKKAT
Rishi Krishna, a third-year scholar of engineering at CUSAT has been a part of the Tinker Hub group for just a few years now. He treasures the expertise, the sense of group, and the mentoring at Tinker Space. It exhibits when, as he explains an concept, Mehar questions him on the feasibility of it and suggests another. “I enjoy the sense of community, the freedom to create or work on an idea and the organic brainstorming that takes place here,” he says.
Reema Shaji, a member of the group is presently in the UK on a Chevening scholoarship.
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THULASI KAKKAT
Reema Shaji, a pc science engineer from MES Kuttipuram, who was a part of TinkerSpace for the previous two years because the challenge supervisor is now in the UK on a Chevening scholarship. She was the coordinator of Tinker Hub tasks, for her it has been area to develop and give again to the group.
Philanthropic facet
While it could look like it’s all about know-how and innovating, there’s a philanthropic facet to Tinker Hub and TinkerSpace, which a flashing ticker on the high of the Tinker Hub web site publicizes — ‘don’t fly solo’ and ‘be kind’ — together with ‘coding is a superpower’ and ‘skills pay the bills’.
“It is not just about getting a job or earning, it is also about how you value others. Being kind is important, one should feel excited to be here and help each other. It is about learning through community,” says Mehar of TinkerSpace. “It is about paying forward and when a young innovator or anybody for that matter sees that being done, they will do the same,” he provides.
Utopian? Looks achievable, or no less than Tinker Hub makes it sound like it may be finished.