: 24-YO Builds India’s First DIY Neuroscience Kit For All Ages, Sells Across 22 Countries #IndiaNEWS #Science At the age of six, Deepak Khatri started playing around with electronics. He

24-YO Builds India’s First DIY Neuroscience Kit For All Ages, Sells Across 22 Countries #IndiaNEWS #Science
At the age of six, Deepak Khatri started playing around with electronics.

He would break his toys open to check the components inside and how they functioned. By the time he was eight, he had moved onto bigger products like the television sets, opening them up to see and observe their inner workings.

“I loved opening up electronics and checking how they worked. Once I was done with the appliances at home, I began visiting scrap shops. I would buy soldering irons and other products, and open the products and try to see the circuits. I also read magazines with detailed circuit diagrams,�? he recalls in conversation with The Better India.

When he was in Class 11, he learnt computer science. Equipped with this additional knowledge, he would play around more with circuits, but it would be another two years before he would discover his true passion.

Discovering his passion

A DIY kit, Muscle BioAmp BisCute designed by Upside Down Labs

In 2016, when he was in first year engineering at Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology, Delhi, he chanced upon a TED Talk by neuroscientist Greg Gage, and recalls that his mind was “blown away�?.

“In the video, Gage uses a neuroscience DIY kit to control another person’s arm. He connects the kit to two people, and the other person’s arm moves according to the first person’s brain signal. It is an absolutely wonderful video, and sparked my interest in neuroscience,�? says Khatri.

Gage is the co-founder and CEO of Backyard Brains, which provides neuroscience kits for students of all age groups. All their information is open-source, which led Khatri to dig into their kits and try building one.

“I saw their hardware schematic online for the circuit and tried making it. However, the material cost was coming to Rs 1,000, which was a lot for me at that time. I then researched the technology for each individual part. I bought the parts for cheaper and made the same circuit at Rs 100. You just need the right tools,�? he notes.

This first experiment with neuroscience in 2016 led the 24-year-old to launch a startup called Upside Down Labs four years later. This, he says, is India’s first start-up that creates DIY Neuroscience kits.

“I named it Upside Down as that is how my room looked at that time. I’m also a fan of the show Stranger Things, which has an alternate dimension called the Upside Down,�? laughs Khatri.

While in college itself, the biotechnology engineer started working on low-cost designs to make neuroscience kits cheaper.

Designing India’s first DIY neuroscience kits

In 2017, he built a low-cost bio amplifier design that he says can be used for prosthetics and human augmentation.