25-yr-old’s Lab on Wheels, set to ignite young minds, awaits grand launch by TG CM in Hyd

An eight-year-old Andhra boy while studying in third standard works on a school project for a Science exhibition. The school felicitates him and his parents for the innovative project. From then on, he has been inclined towards building something new by backing on online tutorial videos. He even learnt robotics from a young age. At the age of 20, the inquisitive boy, Madhulash Babu gets down to establish an edtech startup and design a Lab on Wheels. Babu, the Founder and CEO of Edodwaja Private Limited (The Flow Bus), Edodwaja Foundation, and 25 under 25 award winner, is igniting young minds, bridging gap in practical education, and teaching the science behind technology. In an interview with Bizz Buzz, Madhulash Babu discusses his entrepreneurial journey, the challenges he faced, and his vision for Edodwaja. He reveals the exciting features of the FLOW bus and how it will ignite young minds across Telangana and beyond

How did your entrepreneurial journey begin?

I came to Hyderabad to fulfill my ambition of learning and innovating using new technologies. While pursuing Bachelors in EC, after a point of time, I realised that colleges do not provide hands-on experience of these technologies. In 2020, I was working on one project which included Machine Learning, as I lacked that practical knowledge I tried to contact my faculty but no one helped. Hence I started self learning so as to work on projects by myself. During Covid, I ventured into teaching robotics online. I formed a team of 10, which included my classmates and juniors. Initially we taught for free, later we started charging Rs 1,500 for a 10 to 15 day camp, for students studying between sixth to 10th class. After graduating in 2021, I pursued MBA while simultaneously working on laying the foundation for my edtech startup.

What were the teething problems you had to face?

Till then I wasn’t aware about entrepreneurship or startup. I saw experts on YouTube teaching specific subjects, which made me realise that I had not founded the startup in the correct way. On sideline we started working on developing products like smart sanitiser, but due to lack of information on many fronts we realised that we had to drop those projects as it was research-oriented and needed strong funding. So we moved back to solving the problem statement which is education. From YouTube learning and referring various online platforms we came up with a unique product to bridge the gap in practical education. That is how Lab on Wheels was born.

How is Edodwaja bridging the gap in the educational system?

After receiving guidance from other entrepreneurs on the right way in starting a startup we founded Edodwaja in 2021, while I was simultaneously pursuing MBA. During this period we decided to start off with offline workshops at schools and colleges, besides online classes. We have held workshops at Malla Reddy Engineering college, Silver Oaks schools, and at many government schools in collaboration with AIC-T Hub. Alongside we created a virtual Lab using VR, we gave the headsets to these principals, and teachers to experience the Lab. This excited them, and the students to learn and know more. As these technologies are expensive schools are holding back from investing on it. Moreover, these technologies need the right mentor to teach students whereas schools have only tutors, whereas, we have the team to mentor students. We go to schools, and colleges show them various technologies, its use cases and give them hands-on experience.

As Lab on Wheels is awaiting launch, can you give insight into what students can get to experience once they enter the lab...

Futuristic Lab on Wheels (FLOW) has different zones for various technologies such as robotics, AR, VR, IoT, 3D printing, drone technology, master space, which comes up to nine zones. Once they enter the lab they will get hands-on experience on various technologies. At a given time, 30 students can be accommodated inside the lab. We have converted a 65-seater bus into the lab. We are eagerly looking forward for the launch, and we wish that the launch will take place in the hands of our Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy. The teaching method includes three programmes – innovate, design and recreate yourself. In initial stage we are igniting interest by showcasing various technologies. The second programme involves DIY kits. Students will be grouped into four or five, they will be handed over a DIY kit, which they can take back to their classroom and design/ develop a product using any one technology of their interest. If, after these two programmes the student is interested in learning in-depth they can refer our website for resources and free online videos, where we will mentor them virtually. This is self learning concept for them to recreate by themselves what they had learnt in the Lab.

As these programmes will be launched only with that of Lab, what is Edodwaja into right now?

Right now we have launched mentorship programme for students interested in pursuing STEM. We are also running a mobile planetarium. Our team has designed this. We are using a projector to display the image on a 180 degree screen. It is not a new innovation as it is present in Karnataka; in Telangana we are the first to recreate it. The mobile planetarium can be set up within 20 minutes, and 45 students can be accommodated in each batch. Here, we explain about the planetary system, the recent Chandrayaan programme, the use case of these outer space missions, and so on. We have already taken the planetarium to four schools till now.

Coming back to the Flow Bus, what has been the cost of building a Lab on Wheel?

In total, it cost us Rs 95 lakh. We bought a new chasis, we designed everything from scratch, the fabrication has been done in Delhi, few technologies we bought from our country while rest are from Dubai. It took us one year took to build the Lab. The Flow bus is registered under digital library category. We are now eagerly waiting for the Chief Minister to launch it. The Managing Director of TSRTC, VC Sajjanar, and the related government departments helped us while buying the chassis, other related materials, or even so with the registration. During an event we had pitched about the workshop, and Flow Bus in front of many educational institutes. At this event we were introduced to an US-based funding firm. In March 2023 we received a grant of Rs 82 lakh from them. Then we applied for a Startup India scheme, under which we got Rs 25 lakh in equity from an Indian incubation centre.

After launch, what plan have you charted out for the Flow Bus?

In June, after the launch, our plan is to undertake a Yatra for 33 days in 33 districts of Telangana. We want to share the benefits of our Lab with schools and colleges. Next we will go to Andhra Pradesh, followed by other States. Our long term vision is to launch one technology in one mobile van, so that we can inter-exchange these buses from on district to another. At each school the Lab will be there for two days. As corporate and tier-1 schools charging higher fees from parents are the ones with bandwidth and infrastructure for Labs, Edodwaja’s main focus is reaching out to government and other tier-2 schools who lack these facilities.

How are students going to benefit from Flow Bus?

We are opening the minds of young students to new opportunities, new technologies. They will get to know at an early stage if their interest lies in this or not. We have seen students, even in government schools, are very much attracted to robotics. Because of time constraint we haven’t gone back to these schools to gauge the ideas coming out from these students. But, we are sure that we have kick-started their innovative mind for problem solving. The online workshops are held for seven to 15 days, while offline is for two days. Going ahead, we will collaborate with interested students; support them with mentorship and funding to develop the project.

One curriculum for all age group of students… is it practical?

We have not created separate curriculum for students from different grades. Many advised us to divide programmes grade wise. We did not want to take a call on that. If in fifth or 10th standard, it does not matter as we use simple teaching method. We did not want to standardise it. Schools might think that students have different learning abilities but we feel that though IQ matters, it is not right to judge their learning capabilities beforehand.

Are you looking to raise funds for the expansion plans?

We operate under two entities, Edodwaja Private Limited and Edodwaja Foundation. The Flow Bus and its related expansion plan falls under private entity. Currently we are a team of 15 people, of which five are mentors and rest are interns. To expand our service and strengthen the team, based on a timeline, we will raise an undisclosed amount this year. Moreover, we keep updating the technology used in the Lab or in workshops, for which again capital is needed. For visiting government schools we will partner with corporates who are interested in funding such CSR activities. Interested non-resident Telugus can also come forward and support us monetarily in taking these new technologies to government schools.