Dr. Sridhar Iyer (41) and Rupesh Shah (25) are co-founders of InOpen Technologies Pvt. Ltd (estb.2009), a Mumbai-based company offering computer science content to K-12 schools in India. Developed in collaboration with IIT-Bombay, InOpen’s flagship product is its interactive Computer Masti programme — rated by MIT and several other foreign universities as the ‘best content’ for computer science curriculums in schools. Computer Masti is available in eight Indian and two foreign languages with its internet version boasting 3,500 downloads across 125 countries.
Newspeg. InOpen celebrated its second anniversary last September, and has signed up with 78 schools countrywide where the company’s computer science content is delivered by 2,000 trained faculty. Recently, InOpen inked strategic partnerships with the state governments of Assam, Kerala, Maharashtra and Bihar to deliver computer science education.
Unique selling proposition. “Computer Masti adopts a constructivist pedagogy which encourages students to question and explore. While teaching computer literacy skills, it encourages deductive thinking and logical reasoning — the basic skills required in computer programming,” says Shah, an engineering and management alumnus of Rajasthan University and IIM-Calcutta, and managing director of InOpen.
Genesis. During his research (an extension of an undergraduate degree project) at IIT-Bombay, Shah was assigned Dr. Iyer, professor of computer science and engineering, as guide. A common passion to develop affordable technologies in education bonded them. “We were aware that many companies were marketing hardware such as interactive white boards, labs and so on to schools, but educational content to harness students’ creativity and self-learning skills was a missing element. The prospect of developing such content excited us,” recalls Shah.
To translate their ideas into reality, Shah and Dr. Iyer invested Rs.75 lakh in the project incubated in SINE (Society for Innovation and Entre-preneurship) — an IIT-B initiative to provide support for technology-based entre-preneurship.
“Computer Masti captures student interest, enhances self-learning and will enable students to cope with technologies of the future, apart from creating bench-marks for teachers,” says Iyer, a (non-executive) director of the company and an advisor to the National Council of Educational Research & Training (NCERT).
Fees. Rs.15-100 per child per month.
Future plans. “InOpen will soon undertake a ‘computer masti everywhere’ initiative to make the programme accessible on iPad, Kindle and Android among other digital devices. We also plan to open centres for teacher and student learning activities, and create e-content for new generation smart phones and tablets,” promises Shah.
Way to go!
Paromita Sengupta (Bangalore)