Of AR, VR, MR and KTR: Pallavi Model School student impresses IT Minister at WE Hub meet

HYDERABAD: The fifth anniversary celebrations of WE Hub, attended by Telangana IT Minister K T Rama Rao in Hyderabad on Wednesday, also witnessed some light, ‘immersive’ moments in the midst of all its serious business.

Sri Manasa Reddy, a student of Pallavi Model School, Boduppal, became the cynosure of all eyes, thanks to a brief, thought-provoking interruption by the Minister during her speech at the event. A proud partner of WE Hub initiative at such a young age, Sri Manasa began speaking about her learnings of AR (Augmented Reality), VR (Virtual Reality) and MR (Mixed Reality). Just as she was narrating her experience of not knowing anything about these before joining WE Hub, she was interrupted by KTR.

In an attempt to test her expertise in these tech tools, the Minister asked Sri Manasa, ‘what are AR and VR?”. The young future techie, oozing with confidence, gave the Minister and the gathering a quick crash course on the new-age tech. “Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) are used to create (an) immersive experience. Even the TV and mobile phone we watch, give us (an) immersive experience. But, beyond that, if we want to create in a realistic manner, we use such kinds of technology.

“And additionally, we have MR, which is Mixed Reality, and all these three combined are called hexa technology,” she said. Even as she was ready to mesmerise the audiences with more on the subject, the Minister, amazed by her knowledge, stopped her and wondered on a lighter note as to how she could confuse him with so much of those details.

With the Minister courteously allowing her to continue her speech later, the young student told the gathering that, after joining WE Hub, she and her friends got to know so much about different kinds of technologies like the few she named earlier.

While thanking the WE Hub team for helping her understand how to solve real-life problems, she unveiled an idea of her own in front of the Minister. She said that her school had a plan to help students in rural areas in the form of skill workshops.

“As you said, India has recently crossed China to become the largest populated country but we are lagging behind in manufacturing and secondary tertiary sector. To improve that from a primary stage, we have to conduct a few skill workshops. As part of our school project, we thought to mobilise a few volunteers and we would like to take them to rural areas where they will be conducting skill workshops. It will increase the skill levels and workforce in our country. It may pave the way for India to become a developed country by 2047,” she said.

Sri Manasa Reddy clearly left a lasting impression on the gathering, especially the IT Minister, with the way she presented her idea and even sought the State government’s handholding for such initiatives.