Jhansi’s assistant teacher, who shot to fame for developing an artificial intelligence-powered humanoid teacher, ‘Madam Suman’, has now entered the India Book of Records 2025 for using the minimum amount of investment in creating an AI robot with a servo motor, wiring, and frame.

Mohanlal Suman, a teacher at Composite School at Rajapur village, invested ₹2,900. After the entry of Madam Suman, students of the school excitedly enjoy the classes taken by the AI teacher. “She is indefatigable in answering all kinds of questions irrespective of the subject being taught in the class. She never loses her patience and is full of praise for students who correctly answer the questions and the riddles she puts to them,” said Mohanlal.

Since her joining in May, the school’s attendance rose to 95 per cent from an earlier 65 per cent, as no one wants to miss Madam Suman’s class. The idea to design the AI-teacher came to Mohanlal after he noticed his fellow teachers doing non-teaching duties such as overseeing and accounting for the ingredients and quality of midday meals and going on election duty. “In all such situations, inevitably, classes had to suffer, and so did the quality of teaching. With Madam Suman, this lacuna has been filled,” Mohanlal said. He then fitted a mannequin’s wooden body with an AI assistant evolved by a technology company and customised it.The AI-teacher is not Mohanlal’s first innovation. He received a national award from the Union education minister in Nov 2020 for an online platform, ‘Kaun Banega Lockdown Genius’, during the Covid-19 pandemic, which ran for 222 consecutive days. Covering thousands of topics, the online platform was open to students across India and even abroad. Besides, he came up with ‘Blackboard Express’ for underprivileged children and makes learning interesting through innovative models.

On Sept 15, his hard work reaped fruit when he was awarded the official certificate by Biswaroop Roy Chowdhury, the chief editor of India Book of Records.