Himanshu Upreti on eChai Founder Notes

The first time I came to IISc, I was a math student sitting in the audience.
Last Saturday, I was back as a speaker.

That first visit was for an IFCAM workshop. IFCAM is the Indo-French Centre for Applied Mathematics, where Indian and French researchers work together on applied math problems. It’s based at Indian Institute of Science (IISc). For a student from Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati, it felt like walking into the big leagues.

This time, eChai Ventures and D-CoE hosted “Built By Design: hardware, software, and everything people make” at IISc’s Department of Design and Manufacturing.

50+ people showed up on a weekend morning.

Hardware founders building physical products from scratch.
Software founders shipping AI.
Students with prototypes and big plans.

What struck me most was the ambition. Nobody in that room was thinking small. Long India 🇮🇳

I learned a lot from my fellow panelists too. K Joshil Raj, Ph.D, Mrinal Rai & Harsha Bhurani - hearing about your experiences and the work you’re doing was genuinely inspiring.

I earlier wrote about walking the same roads as CV Raman, Homi Bhabha and Vikram Sarabhai.
A young Sarabhai once did research here under Raman. Nobody back then knew he would go on to lead India’s space program.
Sitting in that room, I kept wondering who in it will be the name someone else walks past in 50 years.

Maybe it’s the student sitting in the audience today.
Lovely campus. Even better people.

Thank you to eChai, Jatin Chaudhary and the D-CoE IISc team for having me.