Ridit Aggarwal
Ridit Aggarwal
I’m a high school senior in New Delhi. I build machines that notice danger early, and I teach people what to do when they do.
Applying to college, class of 2027
Factories in India use powerful machines and chemicals that can sometimes put workers at risk. I explore how science can make workplaces safer by building sensors that spot early warning signs, learning how safety rules protect people, and teaching science to children who don’t always get the chance to share what they know.
I believe science should do more than explain the world... it should help make it better.
that's most of it. the rest is quizzing.
so, while you're here, one for you:
Oggy's brother, from afar (4, 6)
The work
pick one
Projects
A safety robot, a materials dataset, and programmes for workers, survivors and kids.
Research
Five papers so far, on biogas, batteries, bioplastics, chemical policy and the robot.
Awards
From a Best Paper award to rank 44 out of 27,689 in a state science exam.
SAFRshort for Safe Autonomous Field Responder
A small robot that drives through factories and checks the places people don’t go often enough. It looks for heat, gas leaks and corrosion, and sends a warning before something goes wrong.
I built it at RAMSI Tech, the company I started to take it further. The paper on it won Best Paper at the Global Confluence Review conference.
- Brain
- A Raspberry Pi 4, with an ESP32 handling the sensors
- Eyes
- A thermal camera that picks out hotspots
- Nose
- Sensors for methane, ammonia, CO₂ and VOCs
- Feelers
- Ultrasonic sensors so it doesn’t crash into things
- Voice
- Live data on a dashboard, plus SMS alerts over GSM
a few places it's been
- Jindal India PowerThermal power plant
- SEIL Energy IndiaThermal power plant
- Aether BreweriesBrewery, Arunachal Pradesh
- United Brothers DistilleriesBottling plant
- Romina EnterprisesFootwear factory, Bahadurgarh
- Government City Hospital, HodalPublic hospital
what people said after the pilots
Not everything works
My aluminium-air battery took a lot of tries. Here are some of them. I kept the photos because they taught me more than the one that worked.
this one smoked.
a whole test run on the roof, sped up. shake the electrolyte, then check every cell.
two cells, mid test. one leaking.
what the inside looks like after.
NaOH, KOH, salt water, and a few more.
the version that made it into the paper.
Read the paper
About Ridit
I’m Ridit. I build sensors, read regulations and write quiz questions, usually in the same week.
I’m in my last year at Delhi Public School, R.K. Puram, where I’m Head Boy. Most of what I do comes back to one question: how do you make dangerous materials safer for the people who work with them every day?
That question got me into factories with a robot, into a review of how corrosive chemicals are sold in India, and into a room with acid attack survivors talking about skincare. Along the way I learned that a sensor reading only helps if someone understands it. So I teach too.
where it all started: why do some bicycles cost more than cars? (it's the materials.) these days it's four hour rides on Saturdays, mostly out in the Aravallis.
- school
- D.P.S. R.K. Puram, New Delhi
- graduating
- 2027, applying to college now
- into
- Materials, robots, chemical safety
- speaks
- English, Hindi, Punjabi, some French
Delhi Public School, R.K. Puram
New Delhi. Physics, chemistry, maths, economics and English.
grades, in percent
AP exams: five taken, five 5s
at school
- 1Head Boy, for a school of more than 9,500 students
- 2The only student on the team that set up the school’s first IB Diploma Programme
- 3Student Council and Discipline Committee
- 4I run the Quiz, Maths, AI Lab and Research clubs