I’m Ashwin Gandhi, a design leader, author, and innovator with a unique career that spans entrepreneurial sustainability, information technology, consumer products, next-generation experiences like kinetic artworks, interactive UI, and game design & production. My avocational work in impromptu design volunteering & ideations, improvisational design documentation in the form of children's books, and design mentorship to the next gen. means I also bring significant strength in storytelling, process innovation, facilitation, a great level of sub-conscious empathy and organisational influence to all of my work.
A pic from 2015 trip to the Himalayas
Some ideas work and a lot of them don't go as planned... the little times they do, you get a wall
2019 Maharashtra startup Innovation
The last major win for me was the Maharashtra state Innovation Society's National Startup event where the winners got a chance to execute a government project worth 15 Lakhs (INR). We were asked to install our wind turbines at the Maharashtra Electricity Board head office in BKC by the state commissioner in charge for the electricity grid who was also one of the panelists during our final presentation. It was a 2 year long effort after the event with surveys and site analysis to execute the project that ended abruptly during COVID.
Sai Shravan (Prototyping Expert) & Priyanka (Financial Strategist) were a great support at MSInS!
MIT Graduation with my team and coach Inga Stasiulionyte
2018 MIT Bootcamp
It was great to be at MIT Entrepreneurship Program to reinforce my concept of sustainability in design that I strongly believed in. I got an opportunity to pitch my wind turbines with a blockchain based energy trading system designed by Ryan and my team. Plus a great bonus to be able to pitch to the mine owners and Lady Elliot Island Eco Resort owner.
With Rudrani at IIT Hydrebad during Zeintein's pre-placement address note
With Matthew - the best sidekick ever
Meeting folks who inspired me & my first set of interviews (IIT Hyderabad)
Founding my wind turbine startup right after graduation led me to IIT Hyderabad Design Department looking for my first set of friends who would be a part of my entrepreneurial journey. Matthew (MBA from IITK) who graduated along with me not only helped me build the foundational business model but also gladly accompanied me for the interviews. Rudrani - who once inspired me during my own masters program - became the most sought after designer at IIT-H of her batch, and ended up at Microsoft instead. This turn of events pushed me further to build something more convincing and a higher purpose than Microsoft itself.
Masters in Design Graduation at IIT Kanpur with mom and dad - with me lost looking elsewhere, as usual
2017 Inter-IIT techmeet
Winning the silver for my wind turbines as the best product design across all IITs in 2016-17 Inter-IIT Techmeet saw us lifting the overall championships trophy of the event. It was a close competition with IIT-Kgp.
To have done it after defending my wind turbine thesis in Aug. 2016 coming back to my institute brought back memories and kept the innovator in me alive. This was also my last win as a student.
All smiles in disbelief that we won the championships after a close competition with IIT-Kgp
With my first wind turbine concept at IDC IIT-B
The winning memento of Make-in-India Award presented by PM Modi
Make in India Summit 2016 Bombay
Winning the Make-in-India award at the 2016 National Summit in Bombay wrote a fresh chapter in my career. Peers, friends and well wishers alike, advised me to found a startup with my product. The media further fuelled the fire and saw real estate developers reaching out to me even before I had defended my thesis. It was clear that I was going to work on my thesis even after graduation.
Only 4 of those silvers belong to me :D I stole the rest for a day...
2016 Inter-IIT Techmeet
First runner-up trophy, 4 silver medals for me and about 30 more silver medals for my contingent winners is what I had to carry back to my campus alone because the others had left IIT Himachal early, to get back to studying, back at Kanpur. They missed a good felicitation and the fun part of Himachal.
Sachin and Krishna after the win. We later donated the trophy to our design department.
My first medal as a memento in 25 wins and 9 years. Most were trophies or certificates. This was a good gold at Inter-IIT Techmeet 2015 at Kharagpur.
Post-grad in design at IIT-K
Times with Sachin was one of the best moments of learning design at IIT Kanpur. Most of what I learnt at the institute was through competitions and hobby projects that Sachin and I worked on together. Possibly the most hard working designer I have ever come across, he would wake me up at 3 AM for discussions if he had an idea. Zoe - the unicycle we designed together is an example of pure passion for designing with friends like him.
With Sachin at Saket Mall, Delhi
Prithvi, Kalyan, Shobit, Sachin, and Sooraj
Batchmates - Mitali, Swayam, Apoorva, Sneha, Sooraj & Sachin - our usual gang!
Graduating as an aeronautical engineer in 2014
Engineering was more about designing and exploring technology with hands-on projects. From water rockets to aero models to even RC cars and hovercrafts, I explored them all with a tiny team of friends who would usually hang out at my place with mom cooking good food for all of us. Managing my academics with an attendance of 35% was tricky but, I did pull it off somehow with almost a distinction towards the end.
Risky run with a low torque aircraft motor at NIT Calicut Techfest
a RC ATV that was powered by an electric motor
Undefeated champion in water rocketry for 3 years
Water rocketry was a great way to learn all that I wanted to learn about aerodynamics and propulsion. Over time, my team got so good at it with a mix of iterative innovative in 2 years that we started winning every competition that we participated in. We remained undefeated for 3 years across all colleges in India from 2012 to 2014, i.e. till we graduated from college. This marked the beginning of a true maker instilling a great level of confidence in myself that I could think projects through from start to end and make things work.
My final water rocket launch at MVJ College Bangalore in 2014
Inter-College Rocketry Challenge in Bangalore 2013
First victory in technology (2007)
The first win for any kid is always a treasure and something one would remember for a lifetime. It was in 2007 during my high school that I got to taste my first victory for my innovative self-healing fuel pipelines. There were back-to-back National Awards after that for my invisibility cloak and 3-D screens post that. Little did I know that I would keep this enthusiasm for science for decades to come back then. Not sure if I was nerdy or geeky, but I was surely not serious when it came to working on some of these projects. It just happened to be, for ideas come to you when you least expect them.
IRIS 2009 with my concept on 3D screens using light dispersion of suspended colloidal particles