At an age when most teenagers are focused on exams and college choices, Harish Ashok, a 17-year-old from Chennai, is quietly rethinking how hardware is built. His innovation, a voice-based assistant called Zenith, aims to make hardware development as easy and intuitive as writing software, simply by speaking.
Hardware prototyping is often slow, technical, and intimidating. Developers must write firmware, install libraries, map pins, upload code, and debug errors manually. Harish experienced these hurdles first-hand while working on electronics projects. Instead of accepting them as inevitable, he decided to solve the problem.
Zenith works like a smart companion for hardware builders. Users can speak instructions such as changing a sensor, checking a datasheet, or generating code. The assistant then takes care of the background tasks, from writing and uploading firmware to managing serial communication, libraries, and documentation. The result is a smoother, faster journey from idea to working prototype.
In demonstrations shared online, Harish showed how Zenith could build a practical project: an OLED display that reads temperature and humidity when motion is detected. Tasks that would normally take hours of setup and troubleshooting were completed quickly, using simple voice commands. For makers, students, and robotics enthusiasts, this could be a game-changer.
Harish’s vision is clear, to remove the friction that often discourages people from experimenting with hardware. By making the process conversational and accessible, he hopes more creators will feel confident turning ideas into real-world devices.
Zenith is not Harish’s first invention. Earlier, he worked on a smart home energy-saving platform that optimised electricity usage, as well as a colour-scanning device that converts real-world colours into hex codes for web designers. Each project reflects his interest in blending practical needs with clever technology.
The young innovator credits mentors, early supporters, and collaborative tech communities for helping him refine his ideas. He continues to invite feedback as Zenith evolves, signalling his openness to learning and improvement.