Velocity, Bet on Canada Summit and the TKS 'Explore' Hackathon
October Newsletter
Hi! If you’re new here, I’m a 19-year old design engineer, software developer and founder. Currently, I’m building tech for the Web3 gaming and ed-tech space as well as AI and am an astronomy enthusiast :) Previously, I’ve built an observatory in my back garden, was awarded a First Class Diploma in tabla by the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan and won the International Finalist prize for Uber Global Hackathon.
Attending Bet On Canada: Canada’s Top Business Summit
Towards the end of the month, I had the pleasure to attend the Bet on Canada Summit in Vancouver - Canada’s top business summit. I had the chance to meet with many different CEOs, learn about how they apply AI applications to their businesses and get some great insights from the panel speakers.
It gave me a chance, with other learners from The Knowledge Society, to gain exposure to the world of tech and startups and connect with some of Canada’s top and emerging business leaders. It also gave me a taste of the startup environment in Vancouver. One key idea that stood out to me was that humanity matters a lot more than artificial intelligence, our human features should be guiders for AI.
This opportunity to attend couldn’t have been possible without Pranav Menon and TKS - thank you!
LumeLink: Providing Secure Payments and Supply Chain Tracking with Blockchain
The Global Fund was robbed. $34M worth of aid funds were stolen by corrupt government officials over the span of four different countries. This gross misappropriation of funds created international backlash, leading to Switzerland and Germany suspending donations. This in total caused a $50M wipeout from global aid funds directed towards those in need. This is food, medical supplies, water, infrastructure. When talking about aid, it’s not only money, there are millions of lives lost in the name of greed.
This is the problem that David Tingey, Yaser Atarud, Jess Villanueva, Chisa Amadi and I sought to tackle during the TKS Explore Hackathon. We came up with LumeLink, which provides secure real-time payment and supply chain tracking. It uses the Solana network to cut costs on backend processing, increase speed and employ state-of-the-art security and transparency measures. The technology already exists, we’re being held back by slowed adoption. We had such a fun experience working together, putting together our slide deck and pitching our final solution :)
We had the privilege to pitch to a panel of industry experts who were external judges, coming in from companies such as Acorn Biolabs and Vial. Their feedback on what we could have done better from the technical side of things and insights were crucial to impacting our future work. Shoutout to them for volunteering their time and guidance to our idea!
What’s Cooking?🤔
Rice boiled and simmered for 20 mins. Salmon fried and cooked for 20 mins + half a teaspoon of turmeric, salt for taste, black pepper and chilli powder. Dahl boiled and cooked for 20 mins. Total prep time: 1 hr.
Learning to live alone means learning to cook alone. I learned recipes (with the help of my parents of course!) that I could eat on daily basis during my gap year. Here I have included meal recipes that I cooked which I thought of sharing.
One lesson I’ve learned cooking my own meals is that food is fuel. Other than dinnertime when I dedicate 1 hour to cooking, I don’t really make exciting food to save time during my day. Something that I found I struggled with was meal prepping took up hours during my day. So what I did was I found what gives me energy throughout the day yet takes >20 mins to make, something that would be very practical. For me, this is making boiled eggs for breakfast and boiled chicken + a vegetable for lunch, daily. I found that meal prepping for the entire week ahead on Sunday and cooking such meals not only gives me the most energy, but also saves the most time day to day during my gap year.
Lamb chops 40 mins to cook on low heat. Riced boiled and simmered for 20 mins. Total prep time: 1hr.
I was accepted into TKS Velocity, another program within the accelerator, to push myself to reach my full potential. One of the major aspects of this program is “Eating Healthy”. I was inspired to cook these recipes at home as I wanted to eat healthy, rather than taking away or eating outside day to day for the sake of health and cost efficiency. And while I wouldn’t consider myself the best cook yet, I’m happy to say that I enjoy cooking now as a hobby and find it fun! :)
Snippets
Monthly favourites & media that I’m consuming
📖 Currently reading: Principles by Ray Dalio, Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most by Bruce Patton, Douglas Stone and Shiela Heen; Getting to Yes by Roger Fisher and William Ury; Zero to One by Peter Thiel
🎧 Podcast: #324 John D. Rockefeller (38 Letters Rockefeller Wrote to His Son) (David Senra)
🧠 Articles/Vids: Self-Knowledge (Mark Manson), 21 Lessons for the 21st Century | Talks at Google (Yuval Noah Harari), The Modern Polymath: Why building your “T” is important (Michael Simmons)
Mindsets of the Month 🧠
Done > Perfect — This isn’t the first time I’ve brought up this mindset in this newsletter, but Done > Perfect really struck me this month. I’d often find myself taking action at the last minute right before a set deadline. I think it is something that a lot of people struggle with due to perfectionism. It’s happening to me even as I write this newsletter! No surprise there. What matters is that getting it done is better than being perfect, and that’s okay. Realising this will push you to create more results.
Courage — The purpose of this mindset is setting time-specific goals to do uncomfortable things, and achieving them before you overthink yourself into not doing them. Doing a “discomfort challenge” will push you beyond what you thought you were capable of and prevent self-limiting beliefs.
Next Month
In November, I’m going to University of British Columbia’s Venture Showcase, continue working on my gaming/EdTech projects and going to be visiting STEMCELL Technologies. See you then 👋