Long time no see (December, January, February updates: Newsletter #3)
December: TKS x IKEA Challenge: Finalists | January: TKS Global Focus Hackathon: Finalists | February: TKS x Amazon Alexa Challenge
If you are new here
Hi, my name is Abhilash Mohapatra. I’m a 15-year-old student at Lycée International (a unique school) near Paris, France. and an innovator at TKS (a global virtual accelerator)
Wow. Has it really been this long without an update on my end? I can’t believe it. I am counting on you
to keep me accountable this time around and on you readers to do the same as well.December: TKS x IKEA Challenge: Finalists
In my last newsletter, I mentioned that I had been working as the project manager of an incredible project for IKEA with my great team (Kohsuke Suzuki Olivia Avalos Villar and Jovana Urošević). We submitted our decks on December 9th and patiently waited for the decisions.
Our goal was to answer this question: “How can IKEA engage with GenZ consumers in the metaverse in the future?”
We decided to: Create an IKEA metaverse that is personal and uses experiential learning to communicate IKEA’s sustainability
My group’s efforts were rewarded by being selected to pitch our idea (on a successful integration with IKEA and metaverse technologies) to IKEA executives. Only 5 teams were selected to present out of more than 30 teams, with top-tier innovators from over 70 countries working alongside IKEA, the biggest furniture company in the world. They liked our idea a lot and promised to implement it. This was a huge success for our team and we were all super proud.
Thank you to TKS (especially Aatik Chopra, our director for giving us such great feedback) and IKEA for this great opportunity and experience now I get to say:
Pitched an Idea to a billion-dollar company and convinced them to implement it (pretty darn awesome for anyone let alone a teenager)
January: TKS Global Focus Hackathon: Finalists
This was a 24-hour hackathon event organized by TKS as a way to get the whole TKS community to innovate this year to work on one problem and submit decks in groups of 5.
For this project, I decided to expand my network and work almost exclusively with new people. I worked with
, Darcy Brown (), , and Idhant Ranjan.In those 24 hours, we managed to create Cropsia: an AI-based app that targets diseased crops using drones.
I am proud to say that we got selected as one of the top 5 teams to be broadcasted live!
February: TKS x Amazon Alexa Challenge
For the past few weeks, I have been working on an incredible project and team (Vivek Kommi, Viola Šeda, and Grace Im). we are working alongside Amazon Alexa to increase their customers in GenZ. Like the last one with IKEA, we have submitted a final recommendation deck. I can’t tell you much for now but stay tuned for the results.
February: Apply: Economics of Space-Based Solar Panels (SSP)
In TKS, the “focus” is a structured system in which the student has to produce four pieces of content focusing on topics like AI, blockchain, or nanotechnology.
I chose Space Technology as my Focus. In February I completed my Apply phase where I went over the viability of Space-Based Solar Panels, in other words, solar panels orbiting the Earth and beaming the energy back down.
For now, I have 3 pieces of content:
Learn (article): “Printing organs? In space?”
Apply (article): Solar Panels in Space as Energy on Earth
Apply (video): Space-Based Solar panels (my own little simulation of the cost) (below)
Quote of the month
Upcoming events 🚀
TKS Amazon Alexa Challenge Decision
My “review” piece from my focus on solar sails
Moonshot