📌 At my core, I’m a builder! Forever fuelled by the excitement of breathing life into bold ambitions!
❝ This journey began in my childhood with my dad, an engineer himself. In 4th grade, he helped me build my first working prototype to demonstrate Faraday's Law of Electromagnetic Induction for that year’s school science fair (the picture on the right shows the original working prototype I built, repainted & photographed years later. If you zoom in, you can see the rusting on the dynamo). That passion grew with me as I built all kinds of projects for school science fairs over the years. My favourites were the mock-up models of India’s 2007 Space Capsule Recovery mission in high school and India’s first lunar mission, Chandrayaan-1, in senior high school science fairs.
My first working prototype 🛠️
IEEE Days were fun!
❝ Later, I pursued an undergraduate degree in Electronics Engineering at one of my state's top technical universities, Cochin University of Science & Technology. During this time, I revived the IEEE student branch, which had been dormant for over a decade, and served as its chairman. I also became the founding chairman of the IEEE Robotics & Automation Society student chapter. In its early days, I dedicated myself fully, leading 10+ events as both coordinator and speaker. Today, both are among the leading student bodies in IEEE Region 10 (Asia-Pacific).
One of my embedded projects: LabBot1.0 📟
❝ Over those years, I developed a strong passion for embedded (edge) systems, building multiple DIY prototypes and demos along the way. I had the opportunity to briefly contribute to the MIT-RedX project 'SenseCam' in Mumbai, to explore emotion detection using webcams. I was later offered a six-month internship at the Tata DISQ incubator in Mumbai for another collaborative project with MIT researchers, but I had to turn it down in pursuit of bolder ambitions. Around the same time, I attempted to launch my first startup, based on an algorithm I developed for Intelligent Drowsiness Detection using only a camera + (classical) AI. I envisioned the product as a standalone dash-cam that monitors drivers and alerts them if they fall asleep.
❝ My passion for embedded systems gradually evolved into advanced AI & robotics. During my undergraduate years, I built several robots from scratch, from line-tracing bots to mobile platforms and robotic manipulators. Later, I took this passion to the UK, where I was admitted to a fully-funded PhD program in AI & Robotics at the University of Leeds, bypassing the master’s degree requirements. (Perhaps one day, I’ll return to university life to earn a master’s as well.) Toward the end of my PhD, I briefly launched my second startup. The planned product was ‘Intelligent Robotic Manipulators’ for warehouse and logistics operations, based on the insights from my thesis. However, the venture was cut short when I was unable to secure a post-graduate work visa.
My favourite creation: CAMbot1.0 🤖
Working in space tech was a dream come true!
❝ So, for my next adventure, I decided to explore the space domain - humanity’s final frontier and a dream I had cherished since high school. This took me to Luxembourg, where I worked on Autonomous Space Systems for European Space Agency (ESA) projects at the University of Luxembourg. One of the proudest moments was building an AI system that flew to space on the university’s AI4SPACE payload onboard a SpaceX rocket. Upon returning to the UK, I briefly contributed to another ESA project in London. Soon after, I received the prestigious Global Talent endorsement from the Royal Academy of Engineering, paving the way for my UK Global Talent Visa. Once again, I was free to build boldly!
❝ After finally gaining the freedom I had long craved - following years of hopping between visas and countries - I’m now embarking on my startup journey for the third time. This time, it’s my most ambitious endeavour yet: building backpack-sized micro-satellites (AI-CubeSats) for next-gen maritime monitoring. With limited resources and working from my shoebox room in London, I’ve prototyped the first version: EdisonSat-v1. Like all great startup stories that began in a garage, I’m aiming for the stars — in my case, quite literally. One day, my satellites will fly in orbit!!
Until then, Per aspera, Ad astra 🚀
EdisonSat-v1 prototype 🛰️