imash.win

Ashwin
Mukund
Raju Madhu

from first principles to first venture

I break problems to their foundations, reason from what's actually true, and build from there. Scientist, builder, leader — all by the age of 18.

World Champion MakeX Robotics · Abu Dhabi
Best Delegate SIMUN ECOSOC · 1,200+ delegates
Founder Kakitha Pookal
SAT 1500 · TOEFL 115 Standardised Testing
My Journey → Get in Touch
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About

The long game,
played honestly.

I'm Ashwin — a student from Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, completing my Cambridge A-levels in Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics at Yellow Train School. My conviction is simple: clarity of thought is the rarest competitive advantage, and the clearest path through any hard problem is to strip away inherited assumptions and reason from what's fundamentally true.

At 17, I led a robotics team to the World Championship at MakeX International in Abu Dhabi. I interned at Konwert India Motors — an EV startup converting fossil-fuel autorickshaws into clean transport — where I co-wrote their factory installation manual from scratch. I founded Kakitha Pookal (Paper Flowers), a circular economy initiative that turns discarded school notebooks into learning tools for rural children.

I've argued global policy at India's largest Model United Nations, contributed to an Alpha Decay Experiment proposal for CERN's Beamline for Schools, and qualified for the Wharton Business Investment Competition. Each chapter has sharpened the same instinct: find the root of the problem, find the elegant solution, execute with discipline.

I'm now preparing to take that clarity into university and into whatever first venture comes next. The domain doesn't intimidate me. The thinking does — and that is exactly where I want to be.

Ashwin Mukund Raju Madhu

Currently

Cambridge A-Level Graduate

Yellow Train School, Coimbatore · Class of 2026

Greatest Achievement

World Champion — MakeX Robotics

International Competition · Abu Dhabi · Oct 2024

First Venture

Founder, Kakitha Pookal

Circular economy · 200+ notebooks repurposed · Apr 2024

Education

A-Levels: Maths, Chemistry, Physics

Predicted A* A* A* · IGCSE: 9s in Maths, Sciences

Languages

Tamil · English · German · Malayalam · Hindi

Now

What I'm focused on.

Updated as life and work shift. A real-time window into the chapter I'm in.

01

Building

Kakitha Pookal — expanding beyond 200 notebooks. Planning the next phase: broader distribution networks and partnerships with rural schools across Coimbatore district. This is my first venture, and it's teaching me everything.

02

Seeking

University admission — applying to programmes in engineering, business, or the space where they intersect. I want an environment that rewards rigorous thinking and rewards builders. Open to conversations with founders, mentors, and institutions.

03

Exploring

Clean technology & systems thinking — the Konwert internship opened a door. I'm reading widely on urban mobility, sustainable infrastructure, and what makes ventures in this space actually last. The physics of sustainability.

Journey

How I got here.

A life shaped by curiosity, built on fundamentals, and pointed at what matters most.

Apr 2024 – Apr 2026

Cambridge A-Levels

Yellow Train School, Coimbatore

Completing A-Levels in Mathematics, Chemistry, and Physics with predicted A* grades in all three. AS-Levels in English and Psychology. Where I learned that the same rigour that solves differential equations also dissolves bad arguments.

Nov 2025

Secretary General

YTMUN (Yellow Train Model United Nations)

Led the school's Model United Nations conference as Secretary General — responsible for the full architecture of the event, from committee design to running debate. The highest leadership role in the MUN space.

Aug 2025

Chairperson, DISEC Committee

RAISMUN — State-Level MUN, Coimbatore

Chaired the Disarmament and International Security Committee at a state-level conference, managing debate, procedure, and resolution drafting across a full committee of delegates.

Mar – Jul 2025

Technical Documentation Intern

Konwert India Motors, Coimbatore

Joined an EV startup converting ICE autorickshaws into battery-operated vehicles. Co-drafted the official Pre-assembly and Kit Installation Instruction Manual for factory use — my first piece of writing that real engineers would rely on. Also designed a product brochure for Musashi Auto Parts (India), a subsidiary of Musashi Seimitsu Industries, Japan.

Apr 2025

Best Delegate — ECOSOC Committee

SIMUN (South Indian Model United Nations)

Won Best Delegate at one of India's largest MUN conferences with over 1,200 delegates. Represented a nation in the Economic and Social Council, navigating complex multilateral negotiation on live global issues.

Oct 2024

World Champion · Gold Medal

Robotics Team Captain

MakeX International Robotics Competition — Abu Dhabi

Led the team to the Gold Medal at the MakeX International Robotics Competition in Abu Dhabi — a world championship contested by top teams from across the globe. Engineering precision. Team trust. Execution under pressure.

Nov 2024

Team Leader — 1st Round Qualifier

Wharton Business Investment Competition, Wharton Business School

Led a team through the first qualifying round of one of the most prestigious student business competitions globally, hosted by the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Apr 2024 – Present

Founder

Kakitha Pookal (Paper Flowers)

Founded a student-run circular economy initiative that collects, refurbishes, and redistributes partially used notebooks to rural children. 200+ notebooks repurposed to date. Aligned with UN SDGs 4 (Quality Education) and 12 (Responsible Consumption). My first venture. Running it taught me more about execution than any classroom.

Jan 2022 – Feb 2024

Pearson Edexcel IGCSE

Yellow Train School, Coimbatore

Achieved grade 9 (highest) in Mathematics, Chemistry, Biology, and Physics. Grade 8 in English. The foundation. Everything I've built since rests on it.

Thinking

Ideas worth sitting with.

Long-form notes on what I'm building, learning, and questioning. Written to think clearly, not to perform.

Sustainability

The circular economy isn't idealism — it's the only engineering that makes sense

What founding Kakitha Pookal taught me about closing loops. In nature, nothing is truly wasted. The question isn't whether to apply this principle to business. It's why we ever stopped.

Coming soon

Clean Technology

Why retrofitting matters more than replacing

At Konwert India Motors, I learned that the most sustainable answer to a dirty fleet isn't always a new one. Sometimes the most radical act is extending what already exists, rather than discarding it.

Coming soon

First Principles

Physics first: why I think about problems the way I do

The discipline that has shaped my thinking most isn't a class — it's a habit. Strip the problem to its irreducible parts, check what's actually true, and only then start building.

Coming soon

Leadership

What winning a world championship taught me about trust

You cannot debug a robot and a team dynamic at the same time. In Abu Dhabi, I learned that the human problem must be solved first, every time — and that trust is the highest-leverage engineering you will ever do.

Coming soon

Log

The chronicle.

This is not a blog. It is a log — brief, honest entries marking the moments that matter. Milestones reached, decisions made, bets placed. Updated as life unfolds.

May 2026

imash.win goes live.Milestone

Built my first real corner of the internet. A mirror, a log, a declaration of intent. Everything you see here is the account I want to keep.

Apr 2026

Cambridge A-Level examinations completed.Milestone

End of school. Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics. The chapter closes. The next one is unwritten.

Nov 2025

Secretary General, YTMUN.Milestone

Built and led the school's MUN conference as SG. From agenda-setting to closing gavel. My most complex leadership challenge to date.

Nov 2025

TOEFL iBT: 115/120.Milestone

Reading, Listening, Speaking, Writing. Near-perfect in a language that is not my mother tongue.

Oct 2025

SAT: 1500/1600.Milestone

Aug 2025

District Level Basketball Gold Medallist, Coimbatore.Life

Competing at district level in a sport you love is its own kind of thinking. Quick decisions, trust in teammates, no second chances.

Aug 2025

Chairperson, DISEC Committee — RAISMUN (State Level).Milestone

Led a full committee on disarmament and international security. Running a room is a skill. It teaches you that clarity is a form of respect.

Mar–Jul 2025

Internship at Konwert India Motors completed.Venture

Five months at an EV startup. Wrote documentation that real factory engineers would use. Designed materials for a Japanese parent company. First taste of real-world technical work — and I want more.

Apr 2025

Best Delegate, ECOSOC — SIMUN (1,200+ delegates).Gold

One of India's largest MUNs. The room had 1,200 delegates. I argued my position clearly, built coalitions, and held my ground. The award was the confirmation, not the moment.

Nov 2024

Wharton Business Investment Competition — 1st Round Qualifier.Idea

Led a team through the first round of Wharton's competition. The discipline is investment analysis. The real exercise was distilling complex thinking into a clear, defensible argument.

Oct 2024

World Champion. MakeX International Robotics, Abu Dhabi. Gold Medal.Gold

The arena. The team. The moment. We built something that worked when it had to. This is what engineering feels like when the stakes are real.

Sep–Oct 2024

Athletics & Volleyball medals, RAIS Inter-School Competitions.Life

Silver in Long Jump and Discus Throw. 2nd place as Setter in Volleyball. Sport teaches you that the body is also a system that responds to first principles.

2024

CERN Beamline for Schools — Alpha Decay Experiment.Idea

Contributed to the scientific proposal for an Alpha Decay Experiment. Writing a proposal for CERN means every word must earn its place. One of the most intellectually demanding things I've done.

Apr 2024

Kakitha Pookal founded.Venture

A notebook. A child. A closed loop. The name means Paper Flowers in Tamil — the idea that something discarded can bloom again in someone else's hands. 200+ notebooks redistributed so far. This is my first venture.

Apr 2024

Volunteer Photographer, DoctorNet NGO.Life

Photographed a volunteer drive connecting tribal communities with city-based doctors. Some problems are solved by infrastructure. Some by a photograph that makes them visible.

Feb 2023–Oct 2024

125+ hours of Financial Literacy completed — Bright Champs / Education 10X.Idea

Investment portfolio management. Macroeconomics. Financial risk analysis. Asset allocation. Because you cannot build a sustainable venture without understanding capital.

Feb 2024

IGCSE results: 9s in Maths, Chemistry, Biology, Physics.Milestone

The highest possible grade, in every science. The foundation everything else is built on.

Connect

Let's talk.

I'm always open to first-principles conversations, genuine collaborations, and problems worth solving.

Email ashwinmukund@hotmail.com → LinkedIn /in/ashwin-mukund →
Location Tamil Nadu, India —