Soft Circuits for Livelihood and Education in India
Margaret Minsky, Nagarajan Akshay, Amritha Natarajan, Suresh Anila, Anjali C Nair, Ajana Gopalan, Rao R. Bhavani · 2013
workshop on the design of soft circuits in the contexts of undergraduate engineering education and empowerment of rural, economically disadvantaged women in India was conducted at Amrita University in Kerala, India. We report that the soft-circuit workshop complemented existing undergraduate engineering education with increased expressivity, initiative, improvisational engineering skills, and integration of hardware and software skills. The workshop participants also explored the viability of the soft- circuit experience as a source of livelihood and technical education for rural women, and developed a Livelihood-Education plan that will be piloted with rural women who are in vocational training, over 60% of whom have dropped out of formal schooling before completing 9th grade. We highlight aspects of our workshop and the resulting economic and educational empowerment plan that are particular to cultural contexts of women in India, to vocational training of underserved populations in India, and to undergraduate engineering education in India.