31 year old Dharmesh Joshi is a Masters Graduate in Electronic Engineering from Queen Mary University London and has previously worked as an Electronic Systems Designer for an international company.
Dharmesh is the Founder and Lead Engineer at Aardra Systems Ltd. The company develops a fully automated cost effective solar-powered, soil moisturising system for homes and farms. It’s a remarkable achievement focusing on a simple need of our ecosystem.
Background
Dharmesh’s parents are from East Africa, third generation, migrated from India. They were born and bred in different parts of East Africa. They both immigrated to the UK in 1974, studying in different cities.
“My mother joined the Social Security Department, now known as the Department for Work and Pensions. My father, on the other hand, joined a bank as a computer system programmer, ultimately opening his own business of computer assembly,” Dharmesh Joshi told us.
Childhood memories
Dharmesh was born and bred in London. “My early memories were of going with my dad to his office either here in London or abroad ,and having a whale of a time- especially when he would set me and my sister some adventurous task. If we successfully achieved it, the reward would be a surprise that we would heartily appreciate!
Early influences
“My early influences were watching over my grandfather repairing his lawn mower and other machines or radios. Also my dad giving me a redundant computer from a customer to be assessed and probably repair with a new computer case and components, with me finally testing the machine for its working capacity,” says the inventor.
Challenges growing up
“Amongst many challenges, one of the few that changed my vision of life was trekking in the wilderness of Tanzania at the age of 15, and seeing how different people survive in different ways with very limited means. It was fascinating to watch the children playing with their own hand- made toys.”
So how did Dharmesh develop his ideas?
“I was always interested in building and inventing new machines that would help to make life easy and more practical. Ever since my Masters’ graduation, I was enthralled by the idea of turning human labour into automation. I managed to realise my father’s ambitious challenge of inventing agriculture automation and we developed it together. In the beginning it was just on paper as a blueprint, but as time went by, we tapped into the global awareness for the conservation of natural resources,” the engineer explained.
What moved Dharmesh to found Aardra Systems?
“Since my early days, having watched many robot programmes on television, my fascination with creating a robot grew. With a little nudge from my dad, I got to Masters’ level in my career. Now there are numerous global predicaments that need to be monitored and mechanised away out of human hands for the better conservation of natural resources. I am now equipped to embark on the invention of automization.”
Aardra Systems says of itself; “The basis of our product is to help you create the unique environment in which plants have adequate elements to thrive. Aardra Systems safe guards water and power resources from being wasted and it supports different plants to flourish at its maximum life by monitoring the necessary requirements.”
We asked Dharmesh to explain the significance and importance of what he does, and why it mattered.
“It matters a lot to me, especially if it is done with conviction and the satisfaction of doing it right for improvement, for the environment and for mankind in general. Plus doing anything for the sake of a financial reward is a short lived narrative. I don’t give up that easily!”
The challenge
“The biggest challenge in this work is to get different components talking to one another with different means of communication. They talk in one common language. They produce results that have to be synchronised. Getting an industry bench mark is a headache. Also challenging is making people aware that while a plant’s life is necessary for a human to exist, the conservation of natural resources is essential in the global predicament.”
We wondered what Dharmesh Joshi’s take on the typical British Asian and his garden is.
“Generally British Asians do respect plant life but there are some that are not committed to nurturing plant life to its fullest. Asians often have a vast area for their garden, but they will not spend much time on the economics of it. So as a result, the garden’s running cost slowly creeps up and when it becomes uneconomical, the garden is left to deteriorate in desolation.”
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Generally British Asians do respect plant life but there are some that are not committed to nurturing plant life to its fullest,
