Kerala's General Education Department has introduced 20,000 additional robotic kits in government and aided high schools to enhance students' exposure to AI, robotics, and IoT. With this expansion, facilitated by Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education (KITE), the total number of kits now stands at 29,000.  

These kits enable students to build prototypes like traffic signals, street lights, electronic voting machines, and walking sticks, fostering logical thinking, problem-solving, and analytical skills through programming. The official launch will take place at the Little KITEs state camp on February 8, where students will exhibit their robotic projects. The event will be attended by General Education Minister V Sivankutty, MLA Kadakampally Surendran, Principal Secretary Rani George, KITE CEO K Anvar Sadath, and ICFOSS Director T T Sunil.  

Initially, KITE distributed 9,000 kits in 2022. This year, 20,000 more have been added with CSR support. Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. provided 8,475 kits, Cochin Shipyard Ltd. contributed 4,615, while QBurst Technologies and Canara Bank donated 1,000 kits each.  

The open-hardware kits, priced under ₹1,000, include components like Arduino Uno R3, LEDs, mini servo motors, LDRs, sensors, breadboards, buzzers, switches, and resistors. Schools can easily replace parts when needed.  

Little KITEs, India’s largest student ICT network, plays a crucial role in this initiative, engaging 1.8 lakh students annually. Among them, 66,737 Class 9 students participated in school-level camps, 15,668 in sub-district camps, and 1,253 in district-level camps.  

The camp will feature expert sessions by Prahlad Vadakkepat, Sunil Prabhakar, and Madhu K S. Students will also visit advanced technology facilities specializing in drones, assistive technology, 3D printing, media production, and animation.