- Attendance: Participate in all training modules to get best out of the program. We have minimum attendance requirement of 80+%.
- Time management: Be available for the modules on time.
- Engagement: Be actively participative during the sessions. Keep your questions typed in training chat windows / ask the trainers, which ever method adopted by the respective trainers
- Please be mindful and respectful for the co-participants and the trainers
- Mentors will be assigned for your teams for the duration of the course. You can use their time to clarify any further on the topics covered or mature your idea. The Course Program team will enable these interactions. Be mindful of these experts time
- Complete the self learning modules and assignments on time to be fully equipped with the deeper understanding of the concepts
- System Requirements:
- Expected you have good working computer, for using the Teams or google meet or any such platform or doing the assignments.
- Maintain good network connectivity through the course that can support seamless video experience with webcam / camera facility. During the course there is need for enabling the videos for better engagement.
- Reach out the SSSIHL program leader contact for any clarifications and support needed during the course

Guidelines for Participants, Mentors and Trainers
Dear Mentors,
Thank you for joining Spark Lab as a mentor. Your experience, insights, and encouragement can make all the difference in shaping these early-stage ideas into purposeful ventures. To ensure a smooth and impactful journey for both mentors and participants, we’ve put together a few simple guidelines.
1. Your Role as a Mentor
You will be assigned to 1–2 participant teams based on your domain or business expertise. Your role is to:
- Offer strategic guidance
- Help to clarify the tools and frameworks or guide with more case studies
- Help teams avoid common early-stage pitfalls
- Provide honest feedback and constructive pushback
- Encourage them to think deeper, plan sharper, and build smarter
- Be a sounding board, not a taskmaster
2. Time Commitment
We understand you’re busy. Here’s what we’re requesting:
- At least One mentorship sessions per week for your assigned team (virtual) during the program (May–June)
- Each session may be 45–60 minutes
- Scheduled based on mutual convenience
- Optional support during the final pitch week (late June)
- You are welcome to continue beyond the program if you feel the team has strong potential and you wish to stay involved — purely voluntary
3. Mentorship Process
- Each team will initiate contact and share their brief prior to the session
- Use your first meeting to understand the idea, ask questions, and offer strategic direction
- Teams will log your key feedback after each session, which we’ll use to track progress
- We will stay in touch in case your availability or team needs shift during the cohort
4. What We Request You to Keep in Mind
- Respect the journey: These are early-stage ideas. Guide without overwhelming.
- Keep it practical: Theory helps, but hands-on examples and real-world framing work best.
- Encourage clarity: Help them sharpen problem statements, metrics, and customer focus.
- Watch out for overbuilding: Help them stay lean, focused, and test quickly.
- Be honest, but kind: Balanced feedback builds trust and growth.
- Flag concerns: If something feels off — team behavior, lack of effort, etc. — let us know discreetly.
5. Mentorship agreement
- As part of SSSIHL university guidelines, we require to execute a mentorship agreement to formally onboard you as mentor for current and future mentorship opportunities at Incubation center and /or the Sri Sathya Sai Research Innovation Foundation ( a Sec 8 company )
- Helps in mutually managing the intellectual property based discussions with the teams
6. Our Support to You
- We’ll send you a simple mentor pack before you begin: team brief, program flow, and key dates
- If you’d like to drop in to any live sessions or demo days, you’re most welcome
- We’re always here to help coordinate schedules, follow-ups, or anything you need
Thank you once again for sharing your time and expertise with Spark Lab. These students and young innovators are here because they have ideas worth nurturing — and your mentorship could be the spark that makes all the difference.
Warm regards,
Spark Lab Team
Institute’s Innovation Council (IIC)
Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning
- Share detailed one page summary to be shared to all participants and university
- Understand the intent of the session from the IIC program team
- Maintaining Time : Show up on time and stick to your respective session scheduled duration
- Moderate the training materials that align with training objective and also with the time : To be shared with the Training Program Leader ( Pavan)
- Make the training material be available at least 2 days before the session scheduled to starts
- (pre-session) Prepare offline reads and related material and case studies for the participants before the session
- (post-session) Make any videos / offline material be available for participants to learn more deeper expanded concepts on their own
- Make assignments as per the curriculum planned for the participants
- Share the training material before hand for the logistics teams to support in presentation / making it available for participants
- Avoid Contradicting or cause confusion to participants on any training modules that are completed. If there is any issue of understanding of a concept noticed, discus with the concerned trainers and clarify to the participants.
- Avoid bringing in any sensitive / controversial / political examples into the training
- All the sessions are recorded for making them available offline review and revision by participants
- Available on video during the training session
- Ensure you have required bandwidth for flawless video based training experience