ABCmatrix is a cross functional social media platform which connects teachers and students from any part of the world to be a part of its learning management platform. The digital platform operates from Qatar.
Karthik Govin, Indian expatriate and founder of ABCmatrix, is an electronics and communication engineer by profession. He has a vision to use digital technology in a way to make learning fun for kids. He recently spoke to Community on his concept at length.


Please run us through your journey briefly for the benefit of our readers.
I was born and brought up in Thanjavur, delta region of Tamil Nadu, India. The combined lifestyle of rural and urban environment made me bridge the gap between two extreme lifestyles of smart work and hard work. I am proud to say that I studied in the first English medium school established in year 1784 by the British government in our region. Later, I studied electronics and communication engineering, and with work experience in Indian’s leading telecom companies landed in Qatar for the first ‘Fiber to the Home’ project. My experience in Qatar National Broadband Network helped me understand the Qatari government’s vision in setting up a top class fiber optic communication network. 
When and why did you discontinue your career as communication engineer?
When I was working for Lusail Smart City project as smart applications solution architect, I got hands-on experience in implementing cutting edge technology for the first time by integrating multiple technologies for such a large project in Qatar. As a communication engineer, I easily visualised the power of connected community and positive and negative impacts on the society. I was excited to see the kind of smart applications that are going to hit the market which will change the way we live. I wanted to make an impact beyond technology in any one particular domain of it.
I understand the simple fact that education sector is going to change a lot by accommodating technology changes either organically or forcefully. Instead of just watching the change, I want to be the change and lead the migration of education using modern technologies. In January 2018, I completely moved my career path from being an engineer to be a promoter of modern connected education platform.


What has made you start ABCmatrix?
In the era of information influx, knowledge is nothing but knowing the truth in any form. Google, Facebook, YouTube and WhatsApp give lots of information for free. Though the smartphone in your hand brings in the latest information on the go, you feel a sense of truth while you read the same message in a printed paper. The touch and feel is not only for the materials we buy but for the information that we consume in any format. Print media is the only format which you can connect with the content at your own pace whereas with the smartphones, you have to move along with the speed of the content delivery — for both audio or video messages — to have better understanding of the content.
Where telephone numbers and e-mail addresses are the two unique identities which the majority of individuals use to move information from one person to other person, ABCmatrix uses the connection link between the source and destination for moving the information. The important reason to start ABCmatrix is to compensate for the revenue loss in using telecom infrastructure by disruptive technologies like Messenger and WhatsApp in international phone calling. 
Hailing from the telecom industry and having shifted to education industry, I wanted to start a learning management platform where people come together and share their knowledge for financial benefit. This surely makes a new revenue model for telecom industry by having value added communication across the industries like education, employment and entertainment. 
Having exposed to new technologies like Big Data, Block Chain, Cloud Computing, Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things and Robotics, my vision is to be an enabler of a knowledge-based economy. The name ABCmatrix is because of the trusted connection (C) it makes between source (A) and destination (B) across multiple social media networks.


How would you briefly define ABCmatrix for the readers?
ABCmatrix is a cross functional social media platform which connects teachers and students from any part of the world to be a part of its learning management platform. As we have smart classes and modern technologies to teach students, the reading habit is diminishing due to the attraction in smart devices.
The objective of ABCmatrix is to reach people who don’t have smartphone and Internet and make a level playing field between those with technology and without. ABCmatrix has the scale to find how quickly a student can understand new concepts and how fast s/he can explain the concept to others. ABCmatrix is taking latest cutting edge technologies to the students and inspiring them to learn the art, culture and heritage of human civilisation. Thus ABCmatrix is compensating for the damage it causes to human values and interaction by introducing machine in almost all walks of the life cycle.


What makes learning fun? 
Human brain always tries to explore things on its own as part of its learning and evolution. When there is fun added to the learning part of a team, their achievement soars. If there is a scientific comparison between learning and teaching, the art of learning will be given more value than the concept of teaching. If the concept of teaching has to be justified, all the students, who are under common teaching environment, have to perform the same. However, the performance varies. This is due to the fact of difference in everyone’s learning curve. With the ABCmatrix-guided learning management platform, the art of learning is given more importance. The art of learning in a group by sharing knowledge makes ABCmatrix a unique programme of the era. As we are seeing intelligent machines being introduced in day-to-day life, human interaction level is going down which needs an element of fun in learning new things from everyone.


What are you plans in future? Do you have some specific projects?
Like how the whole world is waiting for FIFA 2022 in Qatar, a team of professionals and entrepreneurs in Qatar is waiting for ABCMatrix 2020, a game for knowledge-based economy. The world is going to witness for the first time, remote teams on social media are going to face each other for a common goal. To promote the spirit of sports in advance technology learning, we are going to conduct knowledge game connected to their education like Robo Football. 
To begin with, we are setting up 10 locations in Qatar like Al Khor, Dukhan, Najma, Abu Hamour, Al Hilal, Al Rayyan, Al Dafna, Al Gharaffa, Al Mamoura, Al Wakrah. Students can learn how to make Robo play football and form team in their native country name to participate in the game. Since Qatar is a hub of sports, rest assured that the knowledge game of this type will get more fan followers all over the world. Following knowledge game will inspire them to build technology to win the game.


Do you think that living in Qatar has helped you forward your novel ideas?
Of course, the idea of ABCmatrix is gaining an international foothold by conducting online knowledge game in different countries. We are currently present in India, Sri Lanka, UK, Malaysia and Nepal. As Qatar is the second home of many expatriates, connecting with ABCmatrix and their near and dear ones back in the mother country inspires to connect more countries from Qatar. Our objective is to conduct international online knowledge games especially using advance technology from Qatar and to keep up the leading position of introducing latest technology to all.