<p>With the goal of reaching out to girls in ninth grade from rural India and getting them excited about STEM, IIT Bombay launched a new programme called WiSE (Women in Science Engineering from Rural Parts of India) during the week of May 22, 2023, led by Prof. Rajesh Zele, Department of Electrical Engineering. The Institute will mentor the girls over the long term and help them make wise decisions about their future and career choices.</p><p>About 160 girls from 40 schools in rural Maharashtra, Bihar and Odisha arrived at IIT Bombay, accompanied by their science and math teachers. They spent a week in Hostel 15, which gave them the feel of being on campus. They had an intensive schedule from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. for various activities held throughout the week.</p><p>A daily interactive discussion was held with Winspirers (Women inspirers) from diverse backgrounds and professions, who inspired girls to continue their education in the STEM field with their unique stories, followed by hands-on sessions for each participant.</p><p>All participants began with simple light bulb circuits and progressed to FM radio making, intelligent systems using microcontrollers, sensors and actuators and finally building a remote-controller Rover robot from scratch. Each girl built and flew a small drone on the final day.</p><p>Over 70 student volunteers made sure that the entire programme was executed flawlessly. The WiSE programme will be conducted annually with different schools in rural areas to fulfil the ambitions of the National Education Policy (NEP) to curtail the dropout rates of Socio-Economically Disadvantaged Groups (SEDGs). This programme was sponsored by IEEE Circuits and Systems Society, Tecnimont Pvt. Ltd., Eastman and IIT Bombay Institute of Eminence (IOE) Outreach Initiative.</p>