Athul Blesson, 20
Athul used to consider himself a very introverted person. Spending most of his time in front of his computer in his room, Athul thrived in the world of video games and YouTube.
His interest in coding was first sparked after seeing Iron Man 3. Impressed by Tony Stark’s AI assistant, he wanted one of his own. When the internet did not have an AI assistant that met his standards, he decided to build his own. Like Iron Man, through his creation of technology Athul built his own identity.
Athul did what many other aspiring CS students did and found classes online. Once he started coding, he was amazed by all the things he could build using code.
To create even bigger projects, Athul needed to assemble a team. Athul found Hack Club online and started a chapter at his high school in 2017 (which was featured in the New Indian Express). Over time, this club grew from 12 members to over 600+ members. Athul used a curriculum that was beginner-friendly and lowered the barrier to entry to all who wanted to learn.
As a Hack Club leader, he had access to the international community which welcomed him and was incredibly supportive. He met most of his best friends in the United States through Hack Club. Athul is still amazed that he, a high schooler in India, was working on projects with someone his age on the other side of the world.
It was after this that Athul attended SRiSHTi in 2014. However, he was too nervous to demo and decided to leave the venue. Although he had a blast, he regretted that he did not demo. Since then, he has attended many hackathons and demoed at every one. Hackathons have helped Athul build an identity as a bold, confident leader.
Over the last five years, Athul has organized over 16 hackathons and now works as Hack Club’s regional director in Asia-Pacific. In this role, he has helped to start 112 high school coding clubs in the Asia Pacific and Africa regions. These coding clubs offer support, resources, and leadership training to over 4,100 students who meet each week to learn how to code by working on self-directed projects.
His favorite project was from Startup Weekend where he and his team built a project that alerts the local government about power outages and sends them information like the location and time of the power failure to make more timely solutions. His project also sensed overloads and broken power lines to prevent accidents and electrocutions which can create more effective use of local government resources.
Quick Facts
Athul Blesson, 20
Athul used to consider himself a very introverted person. Spending most of his time in front of his computer in his room, Athul thrived in the world of video games and YouTube.
His interest in coding was first sparked after seeing Iron Man 3. Impressed by Tony Stark’s AI assistant, he wanted one of his own. When the internet did not have an AI assistant that met his standards, he decided to build his own. Like Iron Man, through his creation of technology Athul built his own identity.
Athul did what many other aspiring CS students did and found classes online. Once he started coding, he was amazed by all the things he could build using code.
To create even bigger projects, Athul needed to assemble a team. Athul found Hack Club online and started a chapter at his high school in 2017 (which was featured in the New Indian Express). Over time, this club grew from 12 members to over 600+ members. Athul used a curriculum that was beginner-friendly and lowered the barrier to entry to all who wanted to learn.
As a Hack Club leader, he had access to the international community which welcomed him and was incredibly supportive. He met most of his best friends in the United States through Hack Club. Athul is still amazed that he, a high schooler in India, was working on projects with someone his age on the other side of the world.
It was after this that Athul attended SRiSHTi in 2014. However, he was too nervous to demo and decided to leave the venue. Although he had a blast, he regretted that he did not demo. Since then, he has attended many hackathons and demoed at every one. Hackathons have helped Athul build an identity as a bold, confident leader.
Over the last five years, Athul has organized over 16 hackathons and now works as Hack Club’s regional director in Asia-Pacific. In this role, he has helped to start 112 high school coding clubs in the Asia Pacific and Africa regions. These coding clubs offer support, resources, and leadership training to over 4,100 students who meet each week to learn how to code by working on self-directed projects.
His favorite project was from Startup Weekend where he and his team built a project that alerts the local government about power outages and sends them information like the location and time of the power failure to make more timely solutions. His project also sensed overloads and broken power lines to prevent accidents and electrocutions which can create more effective use of local government resources.
Quick Facts
