Chance a junior yr LEGO builder for TXXs
Howdy, just regular stuff gng, btw fun stuff ahead.
I attended a regular high school for freshman and sophomore year, dropped out for a year to build my hardware startup full-time, rejoined school as a junior in 2026. That year outside the classroom honestly changed my trajectory completely. I learned things I don't think I could've learned sitting in class.
Demographics
- Cooked Male, Intl (India)
- Hyper-competitive high school (joined junior year, feedrish, idk there numbers fell down this year lol)
- Annual EFC: $25-30k (Aid)
Intended Major
- Materials Science/Environmental Engineering
Academics
- Grade 9: 94% (4.0)
- Grade 10: 98.8% (#2 schl rank)
- Gap Year: Self-studied Grade 11-12 Physics and Mathematics Open Curriculum
- Now Rising Junior
- SAT: Aug 2026
- APs (Senior Year)
- Physics C: Mechanics
- Physics C: E&M
- Calculus BC
- Computer Science A
- Statistics/Micro
Startup / Entrepreneurship / Engineering ( Primary Spike)
Founder & CEO, Clean-Air venture (Active)
- Building a deep-tech climate startup developing patent-pending bio-based nanofiber air filtration technologies as sustainable alternatives to conventional HEPA filters.
- Applications include HVAC systems, industrial filtration, automobiles, consumer air purifiers and respiratory protection.
- Currently piloting in two schools improving indoor air quality for 300+ students.
- Backed by Antler India, MU, TS and national climate innovation programs.
- INR 5,00,000+ in non-dilutive grants, Micro VC cheque.
- Pitched technology to 30+ VC firms, IIT researchers, professors, startup founders, Government of Delhi, Ministry of Environment officials and national innovation organizations.
- Had to decline a ₹1 Crore ($100K) investment offer due to unfavorable terms.
- In discussion with multiple accelerators.
- Built the startup mobile application this summer including an AI computer vision feature that scans rooms and recommends optimal product usage.
- We had built 3+ prototypes, each solving a problem and improvisation, conducting 15+ experimentation tests, spanning 9 months. ( Only team of 2, me and mentor)
This whole startup was built in gap year and that was the focus
Founder, Shield Enterprises (Closed)
- Designed, built and deployed a low-cost industrial air pollution control system for emission reduction under 6 month rigorous engineering research fellowship, 10+ site tests conducted, results certification, hands on working with hardware solutions and many more things I did as 9th grader,13 yo. (actually built and worked on those giant industrial scale project , we legit built everything from scratch, the 2nd biggest project in schools history , the first is obv the startup rn) ( Team of 5 )
Research & Engineering
Independent Climate Technology Researcher (2022-Present)
- Conducting independent applied research in air pollution, water, environmental engineering, sustainable materials and filtration technologies.
- Research focuses on iterative engineering design, prototyping, testing and real-world deployment rather than purely theoretical work.
(basically my whole life fixing Delhi's air pollution :( )
Designed and built 20+ engineering projects including
- Industrial mist scrubbers
- Vertical farming systems
- Greywater recycling systems
- Smart irrigation automation
- AIoT forest fire detection
- Rapid deployment rescue bridge
- Humanoid robot representing school at events
- Leaf litter collection system (+ many more for Makers Portfolio)
- Fire detection jacket system deployed for a company staff after identifying a real workplace safety issue, distributed to 30+ employees
Built a LEGO 3D printer to do my hw, LEGO robotics, cranes, airplanes and ISRO satellite models, designed 100+ custom LEGO MOCs over the years. Thinking about documenting all of them (Lego and aviation fanboy)
Leadership
Founder & Technical Lead, Clean-Air Venture
- Leading R&D, product architecture, prototyping, fundraising, partnerships, outreach and long-term strategy.
Founder & Mentor, School STEM Club
- Establish a 'maker culture' at school (prev hs, local priv school, used the best of things I had with my time there :) )
- Mentored 50+ students in Arduino, robotics, electronics and engineering design.
ATL Core Member
- Led engineering initiatives across the school innovation lab.
- Mentored 50+ junior students who later won state and national STEM and robotics competitions.
- Honestly probably the leadership experience I'm most proud of. We were just a bunch of nerds building cool things in our small school with an amazing mentor, and seeing younger students get inspired and go on to achieve incredible things was genuinely special.
Project Leadership
- Led interdisciplinary engineering teams combining hardware, AI, sustainability and environmental science.
- Represented teams in national innovation competitions and entrepreneurship programs.
Community & Outreach
- Organized school events and hosted international delegations.
- Conducted annual STEM workshops for underprivileged students for over two years, teaching Arduino, embedded electronics and engineering fundamentals to 300+ students.
- Volunteer at my local religious community temple.
Programs, Fellowships & Entrepreneurship
- TS startup Incubatee
- CEEW Ideator Fellow
- Oxford School of Climate Change (program) Member
- Masters Union Elevator Pitch Competition Winner (Youngest Finalist)
- Active participant in the Indian startup ecosystem
- Accepted to TKS 2026 with $2,000 aid
- Accepted to Summit STEM Fellowship 2026 with $400 aid
- We Are Family Foundation Global Teen Leader Fellowship (Rejected), though Top 20% applicant (email), received recommendation letter from a corp.
Speaking
- Invited keynote speaker at CBSE Headquarters twice after previous competition wins.
- Invited to additional innovation events, government feedback on scaling potential.
- Presented engineering solutions before policymakers, founders and ecosystem leaders
Awards
- National Merit Competitive Exam Scholar (like AIME but indian)
- National Rank 20
- Youth Ideathon
- National Winner (2022)
- Top 3 Senior Category (2025) ~53,000+ teams
- Raised INR 25,000
- CEEW Ideator Fellowship
- Top 5 National Selection
- INSPIRE MANAK
- National Exhibition Finalist
- Selected from 1.5M+ students
- INSEF National Science Fair 2026
- Bronze Medal
- InnoHEALTH Young Innovator Awards (Annual Intl Health Conference)
- Winner (2024, 2025)
- Youngest contestant both years at 15,16
- EMERGE Sustainable Leaders
- Top 10 Nationally
- Tata Steel National Essay Competition
- Silver
- Oxford Global Climate Change Challenge (Saïd Business School ) Participant
- Shark Tank India Season 5 Stage 2 Qualifier Selected from 120,000+ registrations (Virtual pitch, couldn't qualify further)
- BKSF (Venture Show) Season 2
- Stage 2 Qualifier (Pending)
Research
Since 2022 I've pursued independent research focused on environmental engineering, air pollution and sustainable technologies. Most of my research has centered around engineering validation, iterative prototyping, optimization and deployment instead of purely academic research.
Published Indian Patent
- Bio-Based Air Purification System
- Published Indian patent covering a multi-stage bio-based air filtration technology targeting 99.9% particulate removal while reducing plastic waste by approximately 80% compared to disposable HEPA systems, applications include indoor air purification, HVAC, industrial filtration and respiratory protection. (might as well try publishing in journal)
Research Report
- Six-month engineering research project on the Industrial Air Scrubber completed under CEEW (Unpublished)
phew, more to yap but maybe later
Essays
- The great reflection, genuinely excited to write about the things I do and admire soon
LoR ( To be worried later ) 2 schl, 1 external
College List
- All Ivies
- Duke
- Stanford
- Vanderbilt
- Georgia Tech (<33)
- Rice (<3)
- Notre Dame
- Swarthmore
- Haverford
- Williams
- LACs
Happy to work beyond US horizon..
If you haven't realized by now, I love building and building, would love to work in deep-tech, hardware R&D, materials, climate technologies and contribute to solve greater problems at greater impact. While a resume on paper doesn't define anyone, but I wanted to share my journey because it's been pretty unconventional.
What I gotta do more ? Internships, research publications, volunteer, intl comp., scale venture ? I have some of my stuff planned though lwk..
P.S. If u need a good air filter, hmu :)