Born out of the desire to make the art of electronics and programming accessible to children all over Sri Lanka, Gavesha is a locally made microcontroller. Designed with modularity in mind, Gavesha is LEGO for technology. A plug and play system, it requires no soldering of components and simplifies assembly, making it user friendly for kids.
Describing the vision of Gavesha, Chief Technological Officer at Fusion Labs, Ushan Chaminda said, “Our mission is to prepare kids for the world we are going to live in tomorrow, surrounded by the wonders of technology. It can ignite the thinking engine and nourish creative thoughts via a series of self-experiments, without the aid of a teacher. You might be wondering how kids can learn such complex things alone. With Gavesha, we have made it simple.”
How does Gavesha work?
Building projects with Gavesha is quite straightforward. Simply assemble the components on a breadboard and connect them to the appropriate pins on the Gavesha microcontroller. You can write the code required using the scratch programming language. Once assembly is complete, upload your code to it, and you’re ready to go.
While programming from scratch might seem daunting, Gavesha eliminates any difficulty with its companion app. Available on Android, the companion app is preloaded with lessons to help you learn how to program. It also comes preloaded with various projects for you to experiment with. Not only does the companion app work as a learning tool, but it also works as a standalone IDE (integrated development environment) to program the microcontroller from. In a country where only 21% of children have access to a PC, this feature is quite the cherry on the top.
A library of projects to try
Out of the box, Gavesha can be configured to create LED light systems, Remote-controlled cars, home automation systems and even robots. The possibilities are only limited by your creativity (and components). With the included strap, you can even program it to work as a watch and wear it on your wrist.
A starting point for kids to experiment with technology
The key selling point behind Gavesha is its simplicity. With an easy to use IDE and Companion App, the task of coding projects is streamlined thanks to the open-source tech the microcontroller is based on. An abundance of Arduino libraries is available online that are compatible with it. All of which is helping kids learn on the go with examples explained in detail.
With a plug and play-based design, projects come together within a few steps. Just assemble the components, click them in place and your project is live. The lack of soldering and fear of damaging components during assembly promotes tinkering and exploration of different combinations of electronics, giving kids the space to experiment.
Gavesha aims to open up equal opportunities for children all over Sri Lanka, a goal the Gavesha team is working towards making a reality in 2025.