AOST Team

Avviin Chandrasekaran

Founder & President

Avviin's journey in STEM began at age 7 when he wrote a letter to NASA about protecting planets from asteroids using sunlight. NASA's encouraging response sparked his lifelong passion for science and space exploration. This early curiosity led him to learn Scratch programming and participate in his first Maker Faire projects during elementary school, guided by his parents' science club activities.

His competitive achievements span multiple domains: Noetic and Math Kangaroo competitions in elementary school, AMC competitions in middle school, and remarkable success in Science Olympiad. In 2024-25, representing Kennedy Middle School, his team achieved National 2nd place, with Avviin earning individual National rankings - 2nd in Code Busters, 3rd in Meteorology, 4th in Optics, and 7th in Dynamic Planet. Throughout 2023-24 and 2024-25, he secured multiple 1st and 2nd place wins at regional and state levels, including Santa Clara County Regional Championships in Optics, Microbe Mission, Dynamic Planet, Code Busters, Meteorology, and Flight events, plus State 2nd in Agricultural Sciences during 7th grade.

Beyond academics, Avviin demonstrated leadership as Speech Captain at Kennedy Middle School (8th grade) and contributed as a basketball team player for two consecutive years. His passion for microbiology and medical sciences drives independent exploration and research. He strongly believes "education is the best way to entertain," leading him to graduate with honors in his mother tongue Tamil and conduct research on Tamil grammar learning using LLMs. During visits to India, he taught Python basics to high school students, embodying AOST's mission of knowledge sharing.

Avviin has exhibited projects at multiple Maker Faires (2017, 2018, 2019) including his 4-bit binary encoder using Raspberry Pi. His early Scratch programming projects from elementary years are documented on YouTube. Currently, he volunteers as a Teaching Assistant for ITA Tamil School in De Anza Cupertino and continues research on using technology for native language learning, reflecting his commitment to cultural preservation through innovation.