Adithya Kesan Jayakanth

The build so far

Every project since Grade 9, in the order it happened, from the résumé. The four highlighted projects above have their own chapters.

1. Grade 9 · Boeing National Aeromodeling Competition, IIT Madras

   An RC cargo plane, built and flown

   Flew, but missed the target · Boeing National Aeromodeling Competition, IIT Madras, 2023 to 2024

   This was the project that got me into aerodynamics. I led a team of three in a competition open to everyone from Grade 9 to PhD students. We designed a radio-controlled cargo plane on the computer, worked out the shape of its wing, built it from Styrofoam and test-flew it on the school playground. The plane flew, but it did not reach the target. Finding out why started my self-study of computational fluid dynamics, the software that predicts how air flows around a shape.

   

   

   

   

   

   

2. Grade 9 · PSBB Math Appreciation Forum Mathematical Modeling Competition

   Chennai flood model, first place

   First place, 26 February 2024 · PSBB Math Appreciation Forum Mathematical Modeling Competition

   This win earned the school its place at SIMC in Singapore. I led a team of two. We built a mathematical model of how rainwater collects on the roads of Chennai, how it drains away, and how much evaporates, and then used it to test a fix: underground reservoirs and beds that let water soak into the ground.

   

   

3. Grade 10 · Two inter-school conferences

   Model United Nations

   Delegate at two inter-school conferences, July to August 2024

   I represented Venezuela on the UNICEF committee at CVMUN 2024 and on the International Criminal Court at CHINMUN 2024. For each I researched the country's position, wrote it up, spoke in committee and negotiated resolutions with other delegates.

   

   

4. Grade 11 · PS AURIX 2025, P.S. Senior Secondary School

   Astro Olympics, second prize

   Second prize, July 2025 · PS AURIX 2025, P.S. Senior Secondary School

   An inter-school astronomy competition on the physics of space, stars and orbits.

   

   

5. Grade 11 · CBSE state-level mathematical modelling competition

   "Safe Thrills", a roller coaster at the limits of the body

   Third place, September 2025 · CBSE state-level mathematical modelling competition

   This project later became the seed of PLE-SBS, because a track is a machine for giving people forces safely. On my own, in Python, I worked out the mathematics of a roller-coaster track pushed as far as the human body can take, and designed the ride around the forces on the rider. I later presented it to scientists at ISRO.

6. Grade 11 · India Innovation Challenge 2025, University of Sydney · Climate Action track

   Green Meter, top 12 national finalist

   Top 12 national finalist, 30 September 2025 · India Innovation Challenge, University of Sydney

   The idea was to cut a school's electricity bill with the cameras it already has: when a classroom is empty, the lights, fans and projectors can be switched off. I led the team of three, wrote the main program and presented the pitch. The program watches up to 20 camera feeds, recognises people in them, waits 30 seconds before it calls a room empty, and keeps a log for every classroom.

   

   

   

7. Grades 11–12 · STEM Racing India (F1 in Schools), Season 8 · six-member team

   F1 in Schools: Technical Lead

   Research & Development Award, Open National Finals, 9 August 2026 · qualified at the National Qualifiers, 3 April 2026

   I was the Technical Lead of a six-member team, responsible for the shape and materials of our model racing car and for the final sign-off on every design decision. I designed the whole line of cars on the computer, from the first prototype to the Mach 7 that raced at the finals. Eight rounds of airflow simulation cut the first car's drag by 17 percent. I then built a virtual wind tunnel, checked the parts for strength, and wrote a simulator that predicted our race time before the car was ever run.

   

   

   

   

   

8. Grade 11 · Shaastra, IIT Madras

   Two workshops: CFD and rocketry

   Shaastra, IIT Madras, 2 and 4 January 2026

   Two hands-on workshops at IIT Madras's technical festival. The first was an introduction to computational fluid dynamics: the equations that describe how fluids move, and a first simulation. The second was rocketry: thrust, the forces on a rocket, how satellites stay in orbit, and how a spacecraft moves from one orbit to another.

   

9. Grade 11 · Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota

   Two days at ISRO

   Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, March 2026 · the visit that inspired AETHER and PLE-SBS

   On a recommendation letter from my physics teacher, Mrs. Maya Iyer, I spent two days at India's launch centre. I toured the command centre and both launch pads, and presented my racing-car airflow work, the Chennai flood model and the roller-coaster model to directors of Gaganyaan, India's human-spaceflight programme, and to senior scientists. The visit gave me the idea for AETHER, and the scientists there suggested the problem that became PLE-SBS.

   

   

10. Grade 11 · NUS High School of Mathematics and Science, Singapore

    SIMC 2.0: Second Prize (Distinction)

    

    Second Prize (Distinction) internationally, 24 to 29 May 2026

    I led a team of three at the international finals in Singapore. In about thirty hours we had to model a real problem, write the report and present it to the judges. The problem was to take 1,000 chemical fingerprints of food samples, each with 3,401 readings, clean out the faulty ones, find the patterns in the rest, and work out how many different foods were really there. Our answer was about 25, and every number in the report was checked two ways.

    

    

11. Grade 12 · Second capstone · suggested at ISRO

    PLE-SBS: a slidewire escape for any launch pad

    Independent study with a paper, simulator and scale model, May to June 2026 · a problem suggested at ISRO

    If a rocket is about to fail on the launch pad, the crew needs a way out in seconds. This is a design for a slide down a steel wire from the top of the launch tower to a safe bunker, and a formula that sizes the wire for any pad in the world. My addition is one wire with a switch yard and a bay for every escape pod, so that a single wire can clear 24 people in 113 seconds, almost as fast as six separate wires. I checked the model against NASA's own escape systems, built a simulator, and 3D-printed a 1:50 scale model.

    

12. Grade 12 · Capstone project with research · inspired at ISRO

    AETHER: a capsule heat-shield shape study

    Independent capstone with a technical paper, 31 July 2026, poster and film in August · inspired at ISRO

    When a space capsule comes back from orbit, its blunt heat shield has to slow it down without melting. The question I asked was how the shape of that shield changes the drag and the peak heating. I simulated twenty shapes flying at ten times the speed of sound, checked the method against NASA wind-tunnel data, and found that a nose radius of one capsule diameter cuts peak heating by 5.3 percent for only 1.8 percent less drag.

    

13. Grade 12 · Student Council · Chennai's inter-school fest circuit

    Cultural Secretary

    Student Council, June to September 2026 · 18 gold, 28 silver and 24 bronze across 11 fests

    I organised Reverberations 2026, a festival across three branches of the school with 24 events and more than 660 participants from 15 schools, run by a nine-person live operations council. I also selected the school's teams for 11 inter-school fests, which brought home 18 gold, 28 silver and 24 bronze medals, including the overall championship at Scintillations 2026, the school's first since 2019. I am the lead guitarist in the school band, which placed first at Maithri, second at Tarang and third at Reflections.

    

    

    

    

    

14. Grade 12 · Next

    The school's inter-school Science Fest

    Coming up: 23 October 2026

    I am organising the school's inter-school Science Fest.