Portfolio / Surendra BharathEST. curiosity, age 6

Innovate.Build.Inspire.

I'm Palle Surendra Bharath, a product leader and maker who turns ideas into machines people actually use. Chai, curry, cocktails, classrooms: if it can be automated thoughtfully, I've probably tried.

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Portrait of Palle Surendra Bharath
FIG. 00 · The maker
Riku: rice & curry, automatedChai Monk 2.0: 99% taste consistencyFlavour Monk: 0.07g precisionKOMA: cocktails at a tapDIY science kits: 10,000+ studentsSandwich machine: built solo
99%
taste consistency, Chai Monk 2.0
80,000+
recipe variations automated
0.07g
dispensing precision, Flavour Monk
₹1.5 Cr
revenue in first 6 months
10,000+
students reached, IISc kits
12
major prototypes shipped
01About

Machines were never the point. Understanding was.

Every machine I've shipped started the same way my childhood did: something taken apart on the floor, and a stubborn need to know why it works. This is the path from there to here.

  1. The beginning

    A kid with a screwdriver

    I was never content just playing with toys. I wanted to see what made them tick. Dismantle, rebuild, occasionally invent something new from the parts. That spark never went away; it became the way I work.

  2. B.Tech

    Mechanical Design & Manufacturing, IIITDM Kancheepuram

    Chose the course over the brand and picked MDM in the first round on pure conviction, even with an NIT on the table.

    Core member of the Robotics Club; built the solo sandwich machine; won the Autodesk Swachh Bharat 3D Design Challenge, the Chamber of Secrets robotics competition, silver in the hydraulic mechanism design challenge, and a global Top 30 in Autodesk's monthly design challenge.

  3. 2018 – 2019

    Internship at CPDM, IISc Bangalore

    Designed DIY experimental kits that turned abstract physics into something students could hold. 10,000+ of them tried the kits at IISc Open Day.

  4. 2019 – 2025

    Klynk / Futuristic Labs, Founding team member

    Joined a 3-member team out of passion and wore every hat there was (mechanical, electronics, software, product) while the company grew past 60 people.

    R&D Mechatronics Engineer on KOMA. Senior R&D Engineer on Riku: 12 major prototypes, assembly time down 25%. Area Product Owner on Riku. Product Owner on Chai Monk 2.0 and Flavour Monk for Chaayos.

  5. Alongside

    Product Management · T-Works · Freelance

    Certified in Product Management at the Institute of Product Leadership. Maker Pass member at T-Works, India's largest prototyping centre. Five-star CAD and product-design work for international clients on Upwork. Finalist and winner across CADCrowd and Autodesk challenges.

  6. Nov 2025 →

    Coming soon

    Working on something to take innovation to the next level. Stay tuned.

    ▍in progress
Along the wayIIITDM KancheepuramIISc BangaloreKlynkT-Works
02Machines & Products

Concepts to creations.

What starts as an idea usually ends as a machine on a countertop somewhere. Six builds, from a solo college prototype to production units pouring chai in live cafés.

Riku, the automatic rice and curry maker
FIG. 01 · Automatic Rice & Curry Maker
01

Riku

Automatic Rice & Curry Maker

Role
Area Product Owner
Context
Klynk · Futuristic Labs

A machine that cooks rice and curry on its own. One of India's first serious attempts at automating a full meal, not just a snack. I owned the subsystems that make or break it: spice dosing, liquid handling, ingredient dispensing.

  • Led multiple prototype cycles for reliability, maintainability and manufacturability
  • Worked with culinary experts to translate recipes into machine parameters and food-safety limits
  • Coordinated testing, calibration and mechanical–electronic integration
  • Improved production throughput by 15%; demoed at TechSparks, Maker Faire and Saga Carnival, generating 1,000+ qualified leads

Helped make Riku a pioneer among India's smart cooking products, and laid the groundwork for automated multi-dish cooking.

Chai Monk 2.0 brewing four chai vessels at once
FIG. 02 · Smart Chai Machine, built for Chaayos
02

Chai Monk 2.0

Smart Chai Machine, built for Chaayos

Role
Product Owner · Client POC
Context
Klynk × Chaayos (B2B)

Cafés lose customers over two things: inconsistent taste and slow service. Chai Monk 2.0 fixes both. I ran the product end to end as the single point of contact between Chaayos and Klynk, from first concept to machines pouring chai in live cafés.

  • Led a 13-member cross-functional team across mechanical, electronics and software
  • Ran rapid prototyping and Agile sprints from concept to production launch
  • Supervised pilot trials inside Chaayos cafés and folded field insights back into the build
  • Shipped 15+ usability improvements between pilot and production

Production machines in live Chaayos cafés: 99% taste consistency across 80,000+ recipes, ₹1.5 crore revenue in six months.

Flavour Monk demo with Chai Monk 2.0
FIG. 03 · Precision Flavour Dispenser, built for Chaayos
03

Flavour Monk

Precision Flavour Dispenser, built for Chaayos

Role
Product Owner · Sole Developer
Context
Klynk × Chaayos (B2B)

An add-on module that doses flavour to seven-hundredths of a gram. I built the whole thing alone: mechanical design, electronics, firmware. Then I integrated it with Chai Monk 2.0 for synchronised recipe automation.

  • Sole developer across mechanical, electronics and firmware, halving the resource footprint
  • Hit 0.07g dispensing precision
  • Production-ready in 5.5 months
  • Ran flavour-calibration sessions directly with the Chaayos team

Let Chaayos hold flavour consistency at scale while cutting manual intervention, rolled out across café outlets.

KOMA installed at a bar counter
FIG. 04 · Automatic Cocktail Maker
04

KOMA

Automatic Cocktail Maker

Role
R&D Mechatronics Engineer
Context
2019 – 2020

A bar machine that mixes and pours a cocktail at a single tap. Two of us built the complete prototype: structure, electronics, embedded firmware on Raspberry Pi, and the interface bartenders actually touched.

  • >95% dispensing accuracy in pilot testing
  • Usability testing with 10+ working bartenders to refine ergonomics
  • Custom PCBs made in-house with 3D printing and copper etching, cutting prototyping costs 20%
  • Market-ready prototype in nine months

COVID paused the launch, but the machine proved the concept and laid the foundation for scalable beverage automation.

Students trying the science kits in class
FIG. 05 · Ray Optics & Total Internal Reflection
05

DIY Science Kits

Ray Optics & Total Internal Reflection

Role
Product Designer & Developer
Context
CPDM, IISc Bangalore · 2018–19

Physics classrooms explain light with chalk. We built kits that let students bend it with their hands. Designed and fabricated from accessible, classroom-safe materials, then tested in real Bangalore schools.

  • Identified where physics teaching lacked hands-on demonstration tools
  • Designed, engineered and fabricated the kits as a team of two
  • Iterated on live feedback from students and teachers
  • Represented CPDM, IISc at the All India DIC Meet, IIT Hyderabad

10,000+ students experimented with the kits at IISc Open Day. Proof that learning sticks when you build.

With the finished sandwich machine
FIG. 06 · Automatic Hot Sandwich Maker / Vending Machine
06

Sandwich Machine

Automatic Hot Sandwich Maker / Vending Machine

Role
Solo Developer, end to end
Context
Final-year project · 2019

Before anyone paid me to build machines, I built one alone to prove I could: user research, mechanism design, ingredient handling, heating, custom control electronics and every line of firmware. One working machine, one person.

  • Full system architecture: mechanics, ingredient handling, heating, assembly logic
  • Custom electronic control systems and embedded firmware, written solo
  • Working prototype that prepares a sandwich with minimal human intervention

The project that set the pattern for everything after it: own the product from idea to working machine.

03Design Concepts

Ideas that won on paper.

Competition work and CAD explorations, where a strong idea beat complexity, seniority and sometimes the deadline itself.

Top 30 · India

Pendrive Bracelet Watch

A watch, a bracelet and a hidden USB drive, its form borrowed from a motorcycle chain. Autodesk India Design Challenge.

Bottler machine CAD concept1st Prize · Autodesk Swachh Bharat

Bottler Machine

Feed it a discarded bottle, get mobile recharge credit by weight. 25 days finding the idea, 5 days modelling it. Beat every senior in college.

3rd Prize · CAD Competition

Clean the Space

Space-debris capture designed, animated and presented in the 24 hours before deadline. Clarity beat complexity.

Bamboo prep kitchen render

Bamboo Prep Kitchen

A compact food-prep workstation in renewable bamboo: chopping, storage and prep zones in one ergonomic layout.

Rowing machine concept render

Rowing Machine Redesign

A take on the Concept2 Model D for CADCrowd. Keep the durability, fix the ergonomics, earn its place in a living room.

Toppings jar assembly drawing

Toppings Dispenser Study

Engineering drawings from the sandwich machine: jar assembly, dosing geometry, part lists. The unglamorous pages where machines are actually born.

04Bots & Robotics

Before products, there were bots.

College tech-fest machines, built fast and driven hard. This is where mechanics, electronics and code first clicked together.

Manual competition bot

Chamber of Secrets: Manual Bot

1st Prize

Samgatha 2K17 · Team Head

Bluetooth-controlled from a phone with live camera feedback, driven through an obstacle maze it had never seen.

Autonomous bot on course

Chamber of Secrets: Autonomous Bot

1st Prize

Samgatha 2K17 · Team Head

Wall-following maze navigation on sensors alone; LED sequence at the endpoint, then an automatic return run.

Competition course

Row-Boatics Bluetooth Boat

1st Prize

Boat design event · Team Head

A Bluetooth-controlled boat that navigated a maze, burst balloons and reverse-parked. On water.

Ball-Collector Manual Bot

Samgatha 2K16

Joystick-controlled with collection and placement mechanisms built for the task, not the spec sheet.

Elevator Logic

Course project

A motor-controlled four-storey elevator in wood, with floor indication, four-button control, real logic.

Robotics club competition poster

Robotics Club, IIITDM

Core member

Led hands-on projects and workshops merging mechanics, electronics and code. Most of these bots were born.

05Beyond Work

Hands that build also play.

Painting, dance, chess, badminton, volleyball, the occasional mime act. Competing and creating outside the workshop keeps the work honest.

Dance performance on stage
Dance
Mime act at Samgatha
Mime
Volleyball match
Volleyball
Table tennis rally
Table tennis
Badminton smash
Badminton
Mid-game, chess board
Chess
Ink sketch of a motorcycle
Sketching
Basketball game
Basketball
Hostel night on stage
Stage

Certified wins, company sports meet

Chess winner certificate
✦ Winner, Chess: Futuristic Labs sports meet
Table tennis winner certificate
✦ Winner, Table Tennis: Futuristic Labs sports meet
Badminton runner-up certificate
✦ 1st Runner-up, Badminton: Futuristic Labs sports meet
06Vision

Building more than products. Building possibilities.

“Ideas are powerful only when they are built.”

From dismantling toys as a child to shipping commercial automation, one belief has held: ideas deserve to be built, and people deserve the freedom to build them. The future belongs to those who can think, design and make, so I want education and innovation to stop being separate things. A student shouldn't chase marks; they should chase understanding. Not just what things are, but how they work and why they matter.

01

Product creation studios

Hardware innovation spaces where engineers, designers and makers turn ideas into prototypes and market-ready products.

02

Impactful products

Practical, human-centred machines that make technology meaningful, and worth owning.

03

Learning by building

Hands-on learning from challenges, failures and creation itself, not from textbooks alone.

04

A collaborative ecosystem

Creators and companies co-developing solutions to everyday problems that drive real-world change.

In one line

Build to learn. Learn to build.

07Contact

Let's build something together.

An idea, a custom build, a B2B project: I'm open to meaningful collaborations. One idea can change everything. Why not yours?

Email
surendrabharath31@gmail.com
LinkedIn
/in/surendrabharath
Based in
Hitech City, Hyderabad, India

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”

Abraham Lincoln