Our story
It began with three children under a tin shed
In 2015 Anil Pradhan, then an engineering student, went home to Baral, a village in Cuttack district, Odisha, and started a school where children learn by building things. Eleven years on, Young Tinker works with children, students, teachers and whole communities across India and the United States.
Where it began
Anil grew up in Baral, 42 Mouza, in Cuttack district. As a civil engineering student at VSSUT, Burla, he was chief designer of the university’s student rocket team. In 2015 he returned to his village and opened the International Public School for Rural Innovation, IPSFRI, under a tin shed, with three students.
Lessons were built around real problems. Children made furniture from old tyres, built solar lamps and underwater robots, and ran a TED-Ed club. By 2018 the school had about 250 students and 16 teachers and volunteers on a 2.5-acre family plot.
On 18 December 2019 the work was registered in Cuttack as the Young Tinker Educational Foundation, a not-for-profit Section 8 company, with Anil Pradhan and Vaishali Sharma as its directors. It was earlier known as Navonmesh Prasar Foundation.
Eleven years, one year at a time
Every year below is drawn from the foundation’s own records and from what newspapers, NASA and award juries published at the time.
2015
The first school
IPSFRI opens under a tin shed in Baral with three students. The idea is simple: children learn science by using it on problems they can see around them.
2018
A school of 250
The school grows to about 250 students, from pre-nursery to class six. Anil receives the National Youth Icon Award, and The Better India tells the story of the village school to a national audience.
2019
The foundation is registered
Young Tinker Educational Foundation is incorporated on 18 December 2019. The team also 3D-prints a bionic hand for a person who lost a hand.
2020
Face shields, and a call from NASA
When the first lockdown closes schools, the team makes face shields and masks and employs 12 differently-abled young people to do it. Anil wins Falling Walls Engage in Berlin for science engagement. Out of about 800 students interviewed, ten are chosen to build a rover for NASA.
2021
Third place at NASA
Competing under the foundation’s former name, Navonmesh Prasar Foundation, the rover team places 3rd in the high school division of NASA’s Human Exploration Rover Challenge, held online that year, and wins its videography award. The team included a cycle mechanic, a girl welder and a daily labourer. In August, Anil receives the National Youth Award.
2022
The first TinkerFest
On 28 and 29 January, students show what they have built at the first TinkerFest, at 42 Mouza, Cuttack. Anil joins the One Young World summit in Manchester as a Deloitte scholar.
2023
Huntsville, and new TinkerSpaces
Six students race their own rover at NASA HERC in Huntsville, Alabama, from 20 to 22 April, and win the social media award. Young Tinker Spaces open in Berhampur, at VSSUT Burla, in Bhopal and in Hyderabad.
2024
Tinker on Wheels takes the road
A mobile STEM lab that turns a school’s outdoor space into a classroom is launched in Hyderabad on 5 October. In November Anil is named winner of the Rohini Nayyar Prize 2024, presented to him in 2025. In December, government school students launch the YTSAT 1.0 satellite prototype at TinkerFest in Soro, Balasore, watched by about 3,000 people.
2025
New routes, and new recognition
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan visits Tinker on Wheels in January. New units start in Sonbhadra, Uttar Pradesh, and in Delhi with GMR. Anil Pradhan and Vaishali Sharma are named in Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia for social impact, and eight students from rural Odisha travel to the Junicorn summit in Texas.
2026
Young Tinker Clubs, for every age
The foundation opens its work to every age group. Young Tinker Clubs meet in schools, colleges and communities, with 186 clubs on the register across India and the United States, and TinkerFest travels from Cuttack to the Himalayas.
The people who built the rovers
The first NASA team was picked from about 800 young people who were interviewed. It included a cycle mechanic, a welder and a daily labourer.
Rina Bagha
Welder, NASA rover team 2021
Rina’s parents are daily labourers from Boudh district. When the lockdown left the family without work, she went looking for jobs as a domestic helper and was turned away. She had never held a welding torch. At the foundation she learned to weld, and she welded the rover that placed third at NASA in 2021.
Kailash Barik
Transmission, NASA rover team 2021
Kailash is the eldest son in his family and worked in his father’s roadside cycle repair shop, taking odd jobs to pay for his own learning. On the rover team, the young man who used to repair bicycles fitted the transmission of a lunar rover.
Basudeba Bhoi
Prototype lead, NASA rover team 2023
Basudeba worked in the paddy fields with his father before he joined a Young Tinker centre in 2015. He learned 3D printing and printed a bionic hand from open-source designs. He led the prototype for the team that won an award at NASA HERC 2023, and he wants to work at ISRO.
How the work reaches people today
The tin shed became four ways in. Each one grew out of something the first school had to solve.
Young Tinker Spaces
Makerspaces inside schools, colleges and children’s homes, open to students every week.
Tinker on Wheels
A lab on a small truck that turns a school’s outdoor space into a classroom for five days.
TinkerFest
A day when students show what they have built to their families, their teachers and their district.
Young Tinker Clubs
Clubs in schools, campuses and communities, for everyone from six-year-olds to grandparents.
The founders
Anil Pradhan
Founder
A civil engineer from VSSUT who went back to his own village to start a school. He helped draft the School Innovation and Entrepreneurship Policy 2021 for the Ministry of Education’s Innovation Cell, and has received the National Youth Award, Falling Walls Engage and the Rohini Nayyar Prize.
Vaishali Sharma
Co-founder and chief operating officer
Vaishali was mission director of the foundation’s nano-satellite team in 2020 and 2021, and today leads its operations across programmes and states. She was named in Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia 2025 alongside Anil.
“The dream of a Viksit Bharat will come true when innovative educationists like Anil Pradhan and Vaishali Sharma build for Bharat. ToW is a revolutionary product in realizing this dream for millions of students in rural India.”Dharmendra Pradhan, Union Minister of Education, on Tinker on Wheels, 28 January 2025
Awards and recognition
Every honour the foundation, its students and its founders have received, from a village school’s first prize to NASA and Forbes. Where a jury or newspaper published the result, the entry links to it.
Young Tinker Foundation and its students
- 2019Odisha Youth Award, Government of Odisha
- 2020Shambhavi Puraskar, jury commendation, IMFA and BIPF
- 20203M-CII Young Innovators Challenge Award, special impact prize
- 2021NASA Human Exploration Rover Challenge: world rank 3, high school division, as Navonmesh Prasar Foundation
- 2021NASA Human Exploration Rover Challenge: videography award, as Navonmesh Prasar Foundation
- 2023NASA Human Exploration Rover Challenge: social media award
- 2023Honoured at Raj Bhavan by the Governors of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh
- 2025Special product award for Tinker on Wheels, HYSEA Summit, Hyderabad
- 2025BusinessLine Young Changemaker Award, The Hindu BusinessLine Changemaker Awards
- 2025TYE Hyderabad regional finals, won by a student from a Young Tinker Space, TiE Hyderabad
- Award of Excellence, STPI, Government of India
- Impact award, News18 Badlav Humse Hai
Anil Pradhan
- 2011National Junior Editor Award, Dainik Bhaskar
- 2015Winner, National Bridge Design Challenge, NIT Rourkela
- 2016Design Award, Tata Structura
- 2016Rank 6, ABU Robocon India
- 2018National Youth Icon Award
- 2018Best Speaker Award, International Youth Fellowship, South Korea
- 2019International Education Award, Global Education and Training Institute
- 2020Falling Walls Engage, winner in science engagement, Berlin Science Week
- 2021National Youth Award, Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports
- 2021Heroes Behind the Heroes, one of 15 COVID-19 warriors, Sony YAY!
- 2024Rohini Nayyar Prize 2024, Nayyar Foundation, awarded in 2025
- 2024Youth Icon Award, National Social Organisation, Panchkula
- 2025Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia, social impact
- SHRIE Award for education and entrepreneurship, Parichay Foundation
- Changemakers Award, Government of Uttarakhand
- Winner, XCMG Apprentice Program, China
Vaishali Sharma
- 20203M-CII Young Innovators Challenge Award, special impact prize, with Anil
- 2022Falling Walls Engage, science engagement, Berlin Science Week
- 2025Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia, social impact, with Anil
- 2025BusinessLine Young Changemaker Award, with Anil
- Top 130, Women Transforming India Award, NITI Aayog
- Women Tech TrailBlazeHER of the Year, Delhi Management Association
- Award of Excellence, STPI
Talks, fellowships and delegations
- 2018Youth delegate, India–Azerbaijan Youth Dialogue
- 2020TEDxXIMB talk, Innovation through monotony
- 2020TEDxIIMRohtak talk
- 2021Helped draft the School Innovation and Entrepreneurship Policy, Ministry of Education's Innovation Cell
- 2022Deloitte scholar, One Young World summit, Manchester
- 2022TEDxNITKSurathkal talk
- 2023TEDxNaperville talk
- Fellow delegate, World Youth Forum, Egypt
In the news
What newspapers and NASA reported at the time.
- 2018Real-life Rancho returns to Odisha village, sets up innovation school for rural kids The Better India
- 2021The cycle mechanics and welders who won at NASA's rover challenge The Better India
- 2021NASA announces winners of 2021 Human Exploration Rover Challenge NASA
- 2021Odisha's innovation mentor Anil Pradhan conferred National Youth Award Odisha Bytes
- 2023NASA announces winners of 2023 Human Exploration Rover Challenge NASA
- 2024Anil Pradhan wins Rohini Nayyar Prize The Indian Express
- 2025Young Tinker Foundation, Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia Forbes
- 2025Young Tinker Foundation honoured for promoting STEM education Chem Indigest
Watch the story
Three films, from the rover selection in 2020 to the lab that travels to schools today.
Students from Odisha selected for NASA's rover challenge, 2020
Extra effort to extraordinary: Anil Pradhan at TEDx NITK Surathkal
How Tinker on Wheels is reaching 10,000+ students
Help write the next chapter
Start a club where you live, bring Tinker on Wheels to a district, or give a child their first afternoon with real tools.