KOCHI: When Gijo M S, Jayarag T Gopi, Ravindranath A V and Tiby Kuruvilla rolled out ‘Eduplus’ towards the end of January, they were unaware about the impending pandemic, the ensuing lockdown and the repercussions. Founders of Pinmicro, a Japan-based company, they focused on the IoT space using Bluetooth devices with real-time monitoring and activity analytics- corporations being their primary target. However, schools required intervention, especially on the location information front, and therefore Eduplus was launched.
Now, in the wake of the pandemic, Eduplus has rolled out features including virtual classrooms, infection control, hygiene which includes sensors attached to hygiene stations and touchless attendance which enables attendance to be logged as students just walk in to their classrooms. The platform is also free for schools across India for the upcoming academic year.
Currently, Eduplus is the only school management platform with smart ID cards and Bluetooth low energy hardware. “Location information is valuable for schools to know where the students are. Our cards have custom alerts as per location situations, based on safety. We have built a platform that helps schools run their operations in realtime, teachers to collaborate with parents and students and identify the busiest locations on the school campus,” said Ravindranath, CEO, India, EMEA and Americas.
“There was always a vision to take the platform a notch further for virtual learning but, two months earlier it wasn’t a priority. Owing to the virus, we expedited our roadmap and integrated virtual learning modules on our platform and for the schools that have signed up. Getting into a virtual classroom is as simple as clicking a button, as everything, including Zoom or Google Meet, will be aggregated on Eduplus,” he said.
Kochi is the home base for Eduplus. “Our innovation centre is Kakkanad as we wanted to establish a home connect and bring Japanese technology to Indian schools. Operations will be digitally transformed. We already have an international school in Tokyo and a few schools in Kerala has signed up,” said Raveendranath.
As biometrics will not be in use for the longest time, Eduplus’ smartcards are highly relevant.
“The solution is 100 per cent contactless. Also, cleanliness is a major factor during this time. In bigger schools, Eduplus can reveal the busiest areas in the school. This enables the cleaning staff to efficiently target such areas and carry out their duties efficiently. Simultaneously, they indicate the areas where sanitisers can be placed. In the unfortunate event of an infection, the platform can also reveal and track the person’s movement, locations and the people in contact with him/her,” he added.