No battery-operated gadget within little Abhiram’s vicinity has ever been spared. He unscrewed them all, stared at miniature motors in awe, and reassembled the parts in different ways, exhibiting an early disposition towards “being a tinkerer,” as he puts it. After schooling, he joined a Computer Science Engineering course at College of Engineering, Karunagappally. Barely a month into college, he bagged the runner-up prize at a hackathon. And that set the motor running; he found his way into tech communities and discussions, tech and open source events, and more hackathons. In the next few years, he went from participating in tech events to organising, mentoring and volunteering for them.
So far, he has been active part of over 150 events across India. Among all his tech endeavours, he remembers a select few with great fondness. “One of my favourite events is the Compose Camp organised by the Google Developer Student Clubs. I dabbled in Jetpack Compose, a framework built on top of Kotlin, mentored 120 students through the sessions, and built an app in a few hours. I was among the top 10 mentors in India at the time.” An event he cherishes for the energy it entailed is the 2023 India FOSS event in Bengaluru. “I was among 50 students who were selected for our significant contributions to open source software. Another memorable event is a workshop I conducted on Notion, the very first offline class I conducted under the TinkerHub chapter in our college,” he says, all excited.
He joined TinkerHub as an intern in June 2022 and found a sense of community and space to experiment that had him hooked. For one year, he led TinkerHub’s learning initiatives as intern, and then as TinkerHub learning initiatives fellow. During the time he spent at TinkerSpace and with Mehar, he met many people from within and beyond the tech community. One of them was Shemeer, the co-founder of aikyam fellows. Tech4Good Labs, as it was called then, was in its incubation stage, and the idea of tech for social good intrigued Abhiram. In May 2024, he got onboard with aikyam as an intern.
At aikyam, Abhiram works alongside Jinso, dealing with all things tech. He is currently focused on creating innovative newsletters for aikyam jobs. He created a Website Checklist Template that is now an important reference document for the aikyam team as well as those attending the Tools for Storytelling Residency at aikyam. The template covers SEO implementation, branding techniques, website security and hosting, and aesthetic elements. His eagerness to try new things and be engaged in evolving concepts in the tech world is well satiated at aikyam.
“What I first loved about aikyam space, the very moment I set foot here, was the library,” he says, with a slight laugh. “Working here, I have come to love the freedom aikyam allows me, to stumble and to try new things with no inhibitions. Equally rewarding is the team here. I engage in hours-long tech talks with Jinso and mull over philosophical questions with Shemeer,” he says.
Despite being a hardcore tech enthusiast, Abhiram has interests and concerns scattered in different fields. He talks with passion about working with low-code tools, teaching, reading, writing, cooking, and gardening. “If I could create a change in this world, I would want some framework or method that makes it possible for everyone to navigate their mental health issues effectively,” he says. Given the curious tinkerer that Abhiram has always been, he is sure to initiate innovative ripples in his fields of interest.
Abhiram N J is an aikyam fellow who offers tech support for social impact organisations. He also volunteers as a Learning Initiatives Fellow at TinkerHub and is pursuing his final year of Computer Science Engineering at College of Engineering, Karunagappally, where he leads the FOSS Club. He has also interned at T4G Community. You can connect with him here.
