Society
Outside the lab I work with Helping Hut, a student-founded NGO in India that runs free street schooling, a village library and relief drives. I am its Technical Lead and Advisor, and I built the platform it runs on.
Helping Hut
Helping Hut began in July 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, when a group of students started distributing food and teaching children who had no school to go to. It is now a registered trust recognised by NITI Aayog, with volunteer teams in more than twenty cities. Its mission, in its own words, is "supporting the underprivileged by ending beggary through skill-building, assisting with education, and offering essential aid to those in need."
My part is technical. I designed, built and maintain helpinghutngo.in, which is not a brochure site but the system the organisation runs on, from volunteer check-in to donation receipts.
- Role
- Technical Lead and Advisor
- Organisation
- HELPING HUT for Social Welfare Service, a registered trust
- Founded
- July 2020, by students
- Website
- helpinghutngo.in
- lives impacted
- 85,000+
- meals and essentials distributed
- 25,100+
- hours of education
- 4,025+
- active volunteers
- 2,100+
Cumulative figures reported by Helping Hut, September 2026.
What I built
The platform went live in 2026 on Next.js and Payload CMS, replacing a Django backend I had written for the NGO in 2024 and 2025. It is what lets a volunteer network across many cities work as one organisation.
Volunteers
Sign-up, city teams with roles, and a dashboard for each volunteer.
Field days
On-site QR check-in, so hours are logged where the work happens.
Certificates
Volunteering certificates that anyone can verify online.
Donations
One-off and monthly giving, with receipts issued automatically.
Record
Gallery, annual magazines and an archive of press coverage.
Data protection
Consent and data handling under India's DPDP Act.
The work it supports
Helping Hut's programmes, which the platform organises and records.
GyanKutir, a free village library
Opened 10 July 2026, Gopalpura, Jalaun, Uttar Pradesh
A free, open reading room in a village where students had been travelling 10 to 15 km to find a quiet place to study. It was built without a government grant: every book, shelf and fan came from volunteers and donors. I built its web page and the pledge form for books and furniture.
GramSutr, a three-day village camp
13 to 15 March 2026, Gopalpura, Jalaun, Uttar Pradesh
Education, health and hygiene workshops, a blood-donation camp and help registering for government schemes, supported by the Jalaun District Administration. Local press reported twenty young people donating blood. GyanKutir is the camp's permanent legacy.
Udaan Street School
Since 2020, Delhi, Sonipat and other cities
Free classes for street and slum children, taught by volunteers in lanes, parks and community spaces. Helping Hut's 2023 magazine counted more than 285 students.
Relief drives
Since 2020, Across Helping Hut's city teams
Cooked meals, ration kits, clothes, blankets and hygiene kits. In the 2021 COVID wave, the Delhi, Patna and Kota teams distributed more than 500 food packets.
The GyanKutir reading room, shelved with donated books. 
Volunteers at the GramSutr wall mural in Gopalpura, March 2026. 
Helping Hut volunteers with local officials and village elders, GramSutr 2026. 
A hygiene-kit distribution drive, Delhi. 
A roadside cleanliness drive. 
An open-air Udaan Street School class, 2022. 
Team GyanKutir at the library's opening, July 2026.
Programme photographs: Helping Hut.
Also
Innovation Ambassador
Ministry of Education's Innovation Cell, India, 2020 to present
Selected as an Innovation Ambassador, mentoring students and building awareness of innovation and entrepreneurship in higher education.
Assistive technology: SEBAI
2019 to 2020
An AI device for blind, deaf and mute users, with speech navigation, sign-language conversion and object identification. A National Innovation Contest 2020 finalist, in the top ten of more than 30,000 entries.
Space outreach
Houston, 2024, and Sydney, 2025
With the Indian delegation of the Space Studies Program 2024, hosted by the Consul General of India in Houston for a conversation on India's role in the space age and US-India collaboration. In 2025, an invited panelist at the IAF Next Generation Plenary at the International Astronautical Congress in Sydney.
