Andover high school student Aum Trivedi found a way to turn his passion into profit, while also paying it forward.

Earlier this year Trivedi created Derive, a business where he offers a five-day course to middle school students to teach them the basics of robotics and engineering.

It all started when Trivedi signed up for an eight-week course known as the Young Entrepreneurs Academy. The course teaches students how to create a business plan, financial projections, and market research for their business. It was through the Young Entrepreneurs Academy that Trivedi was able to develop his plans for the business, and eventually get Derive up and running.

"The idea of providing robotics education came from my own experience as a young, inexperienced, member of the Andover High School Robotics Club," said Trivedi. "As a freshman in high school, I was taught by several incredibly talented upperclassmen. Without their mentorship, I would still know nothing about robotics. I decided that as I am now an upperclassman, I have the opportunity to return that favor, and begin to offer the same sort of mentorship that I received to as many people as possible. With that notion of spreading the knowledge, I came up with Derive as an effective way to train future robotics engineers."

Two fellow Andover high students,Aurash Bozorgzadeh andAlex Yang, worked as instructors alongside Trivedi during the Derive pilot session. The three are rising seniors this year, all belonging to the Andover High robotics club.

Trivedi will be holding future sessions for Derive Robotics during February and April school breaks. The 5-day course aims to help middle school students get ready to compete in the First Tech Challenge in high school, and costs $500 per student.

"What was most remarkable is that he demonstrated that there was a market need for what he was going to do," said Walter Manninen, a mentor of Triveldi's from the Young Entrepreneurs Academy. "What he saw was a need to target junior high students to give them a footing in robotics. He was really helping young people embrace robotics with the end goal in mind that this could help them in their college career and help them get scholarships."

Trivedi held the first Derive Robotics session the week of July 10 this summer.

"Robotics was compelling to me because working as a part of a robotics team incorporates an immense array of different skill sets," said Trivedi. "A member of a robotics team could be working on anything from documentation of designs and building progress, to designing 3D models of printable parts, to physically assembling the robot itself. This broad diversity means that anyone can be involved, and there is a huge amount to learn."

Follow Kelsey Bode on Twitter @Kelsey_Bode

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Link:

High school student teaches middle schoolers the ABCs of robotics - Andover Townsman