3/29/2025 ⋅ By Rishi Pai ⋅ 3 min read
FRC 2025 - Season Qualifications
To grow my interest and experience in materials science, one of the endeavors I enjoy the most is FRC (FIRST Robotics Competition) through my high school. My first year as a freshman in high school introduced me to robotics, and I hope to learn more and get more involved as the years come. At a new school for my 10th grade year, 2025 marks my first season as a “Techno Titan,” as a member of FRC team 1683.
2/27/2025 ⋅ By Rishi Pai ⋅ 3 min read
How AI is Accelerating Materials Innovation
We all know that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is growing faster than ever before, getting incorporated into new industries everyday, especially in fields of STEM. A recent development in the past few years has been the breakthroughs of generative AI advancing materials analysis and discovery, a combination of my two passions in the field of science. I know for a fact that the technology we have today will serve as a basis for materials science to continue enhancing and improving research through AI techniques. Gauging an interest in combining these two fields, I recently read a few articles online about how AI is shaping materials science research in the 21st century.
1/28/2025 ⋅ By Rishi Pai ⋅ 6 min read
A Touching Moment with Kuljit Bhamra -Pioneer, Inventor, and Tabla Player Extraordinaire
My recent conversation with Keda Music founder and CEO Kuljit Bhamra to learn more about the TablaTouch left me inspired and intrigued by the innovative fusion of tradition and technology. The TablaTouch is to the traditional Tabla as the keyboard is to the piano or as the electric guitar is to the acoustic guitar. Our discussion led me deeper into the heart of the first electronic Tabla and how it has, and will, continue to shape the instrument and its popularity worldwide today.
12/28/2024 ⋅ By Rishi Pai ⋅ 5 min read
Melodies of Tabla in Outer Space
Have you ever wondered how music sounds 100 miles above our planet? Can we still create and share the beauty of instrumental melody as we do on earth in the vacuum of outer space? Is music lost to the cosmos?
In short- yes. Sound cannot travel in the vastness of outer space, the reason why it is pin-drop silent up there. Sound waves require air as a medium to carry its vibration in order for us to hear it, and space is empty of both air and empty of sound. However, the International Space Station (ISS) gives a workaround for astronauts to enjoy the music that we would get down here on planet Earth.