Projects

Built. Shipped. Real.

These aren't academic exercises or tutorials followed step by step. Each one started with a problem - or an obsession - and ended with something physical that works. The soft skills aren't listed here. They're embedded in the process.

CIPHER (Ongoing)

Dual-Purpose Handheld Cyberdeck - Gaming + Pentesting

It started with a dead laptop - a friend's ASUS TUF A15 that had given up. Most people would have binned it. I saw speakers, fans, a salvageable LED strip, and the seed of something that had never been commercially built the way I imagined it.

The idea was deceptively simple: one device that presents as a retro gaming console, with a completely hidden penetration testing environment underneath. The kind of thing that makes you look twice.

What this project has demanded above everything else is patience. There's no tutorial for this exact build. Every decision - power, audio, cooling, display, controls - had to be reasoned from first principles, tested, failed, and re-approached. I've learned that real building is mostly problem-solving at 11pm, and occasionally at 3am.

CIPHER isn't done yet. That's intentional in the story I'm telling here. Knowing when to pause, why to pause, and what finishing it will mean - that's as much a part of the build as any circuit.

Actively demonstrating Long-term Commitment, First-Principles Thinking, Resourcefulness, Problem Solving, Patience, Vision and Self-Direction qualities.

Countdown Timer V1

Open Source Embedded ESP32 Build

I gave myself 7 days. The deadline didn't move.

I'd been building CIPHER for months - a complex, sprawling project where every milestone bleeds into the next. I needed to prove to myself that I could scope something, commit to it, and finish it. Countdown Timer V1 was that proof.

I'd never used Fusion 360 before starting. I had no prior CAD experience. I learned it mid-project, designed the enclosure around the components I'd already wired, printed it on a Bambu A1 Mini, and held the finished device on day seven. Under ₹800. Fully working.

What this project taught me is the value of a constraint. The 7-day deadline forced decisions. It made me ship instead of endlessly refine. There's a kind of discipline in saying "this is done" - and meaning it.

Actively demonstrating Self-Discipline, Follow-through, Learning Under Pressure, Ownership, Commitment, Scoping and Decisiveness qualities.

Akshadrik

Drone Surveillance Application

At some point during this project, I found myself in a room presenting a student-built system to the General Manager of ATM, the Chief Security Officer, and the Senior IT Manager of Airport Authority of India, Ahmedabad.

That moment didn't happen by accident. It was the result of a year of work that started as a national defence hackathon problem statement - surveillance for counter-hijack operations - and evolved into a real-time drone-based detection system that reached the right people.

The experience of building something with actual stakes, for an actual audience with actual authority, changes how you work. There's no room for vague. You have to know your system deeply enough to answer any question in the room - and then make the people in that room believe in what you built.

Akshadrik taught me what it feels like to be taken seriously before you expect to be.

Actively demonstrating Presenting Under Pressure, Stakeholder Communication, Credibility Building, Team Leadership, Adaptability, Resilience and Domain Depth qualities.

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