A genius Mumbaikar, Angad Daryani is a social tech entrepreneur and maker of unique low-cost DIY (Do-it-Yourself) Kits. An ardentart lover, he paints his canvas with electrons.
By Riya Das
Expecting an 8-year old child to build a humanoid robot is too much. Isn't it? But to everyone's surprise, Angad Daryani who was then in his middle-childhood did it, followed by creating a remote-controlled hovercraft in standard VI by watching YouTube videos and guidance from his science teachers Mr. Dilip Ogale and Mr. Shailesh Sansare. A football enthusiast, Daryani was interested in few more hobbies like playing violin, public speaking, photography, traveling, art and design. Aspiring to be an automobile designer, he indulges himself in spending lots of time playing with technology. At a very tender age, he decided not to follow the conventional rote learning anymore and dropped out of school in the ninth standard, later he continued his formal learning from the eleventh standard.
With the desire to expose millions of kids to the act of building things, irrespective of their financial situations, Daryani started working on creating low-cost DIY stuff. He wanted to make people's lives better and simpler.Moving forward this notion, he founded Sharkits, a low -cost DIY kit company for skill building, in July 2010.
Founded SharkBot 3D Systems in 2013, Daryani's next invention was India's first 3D printer at the age of thirteen and introduced an ‘eye-pad' for the blind as a part of a team with MIT at fourteen. One of his prototype 3D printers is being used at the Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai. He also was involved in the initial set up the Makers Asylum in Mumbai, which is one of the most notable maker spaces in our country today – Angad credits it entirely to Vaibhav Chabbra, the founder. The nineteen-year-old now says, "I don't chart my life in targets and achievements, but merely a vague yet particular life goal of striving towards being a better person and contributing to this world in an extremely positive manner."
He, however, considers his father and grandfather to be his greatest inspirations growing up. Daryani adds, "Along with them Prof Ramesh Raskar from MIT, Elon Musk and Prof Manu Prakash from Stanford are some people I really look up to." A then home-schooled student, Daryani believes that internet is his second school as he learned 90 percent of the things outside the classroom.
Today he is pursuing Electrical Engineering at Georgia Tech and as he wants to complete his studies first, his all the projects are on hold as of now. "As my employees were almost twice my age, getting them to respect my word, treating my work as a legitimate company instead of taking it just a small project of a child, raising large-scale funds being that young while being in school, managing a company while working with MIT and being in school was not trouble-free," shares Daryani. He plans to come back India once his schooling is done and start working on solving large-scale problems through frugal innovation and social entrepreneurship.
A fruitful journey of Daryani at this young age indeed spells out the dedication and consistency he has demonstrated. Being a role model to youth today, Daryani wants the next generation to follow this mantra -"Learn for the knowledge and implementation and not for the grades or degrees. Challenge yourself every day, push what you can do and face your fears."
