March 2016 Member of the Month: Antony Prasad

It's never easy, selecting a Member of the Month so close to a Raspberry Pi launch, as the whole Community lights up with projects, discussions, questions, answers and more. So we've had our work cut out for March, but in the end we took a look around to see who's name seems to be appearing in every corner, both light and dark, of the Community.

One guy who you've probably seen around a lot is tonyboubady, who actually only joined us toward the back end of last year, but is already a very regular contributor and soon ascended to a Level 5 (at the time of writing. He's probably a lot higher by the time you read this!).

So join us in a hearty round of applause for March's Member of the Month, Andony Boubady Prasad. How's it going, Tony?

ANTONY: I'm very happy to hear that I have selected as Member of the Month. It's a gold and honour gift to me!

e14: Can you tell us a bit about what first got you interested in engineering, and in electronics?

ANTONY: It was  December 2014, and I was busy with Christmas decorations, with a mindfulness I was missed and slipped on my step in the bathroom. It was knee ligament complete tear injury which put me in bed for a year to recover. In the period of recovering I was so bored, watching movies and things. In mid-2015 I then came across an electronic basics video on Youtube, and it caught my interest and dragged me through to the end of the video. Then I was in search of basic electronic videos, which still kept my interest high. Trust me, I watched more than 100 videos with dozens of Youtube subscriptions and I'm glad to say that element14's The Ben Heck Show was one of the subscriptions. That’s how I was got into electronics and become a maker and inventor.

e14: What's your educational background, and current profession? What kind of work do you do?

ANTONY: I don’t have a formal education in electronics, it’s all about self learning for me. I did finish my under graduation in Business Administration and professional diploma in Computer Science and Programming. I was working as a freelance web developer for 5 years. So, programming was my main thing, and now the hardware joins it. Currently I'm trying to start my own hardware startup with my ideas.

e14: What made you decide to start participating here on the element14 Community?

ANTONY: It was Ben from Ben Heck Show. He made me memorise the name element14 while I was watching his basic electronics videos. After a while I came across a tweet with the LED RoadTest+ sponsored by Texas Instruments and Würth Elektronik, and I applied for it with a gut feeling. I got selected to do the RoadTest+ and I was surprised with the element14’s prompt action on sending components and dev boards to me (I am still wondering, I did received four RoadTest freebies). It’s the energy they gave me to do the blog posts of Roadtest+ and it’s a thing that still drives me to stick around, learn and post more here in element14.

e14: Has being a member of the element14 Community proved beneficial at all, in terms of your electronics projects and even professionally?

ANTONY: If you stick around and watch other’s conversations you will learn a lot here in the element14 community. I do read blogs, conversations and arguments here which pushed me to learn new things. So, yes element14 Community is taking part in teaching me new things in electronics.

e14: Which areas of electronics and the maker scene are you particularly excited about right now?

ANTONY: I am more interested in Artificial Intelligence and robotics. A.I. was my thing from the computer science education I took when I was a teenager. But in general I do get excited with anything about electronics, even if I go to buy components here in local stores, I do get distracted and excited with new components and end up buying more than I should. Lately, I am more into power modules, power and current management, micro current and power savings…I am sure it will help me a lot in my projects and inventions.

e14: Are there any projects you're working on right now, or thinking about starting, that you'd like to tell us about?

ANTONY: I have this idea for drone flight, new of it’s kind. I am sure there is nothing like this before. I'm working on CAD design for this idea. Originally it is for a contest but I am thinking to convert this idea into a startup; I'm not sure yet. I've been working on power modules for amplifiers, car stereos and FM receivers. I am really trying my best to create cases for my personal projects which I couldn’t make because of lacking tools and physical strength. Few more inventive ideas, and some are really big which I couldn’t expose right now...

e14: What advice would you give to someone who's new to the maker scene, and to the element14 Community?

ANTONY: It’s just what I think. Don’t push yourself, it will push inside from you, that’s the gut feeling you should have to drive you in any field. Learn from others but that’s not the end to conclude on topics, you have all room to explore more from what you learn, that’s where you find your inventive ideas.

There is no useless making or ideas in electronics, it will pay off in one way or another, if it is not now it will be later. Don’t ever miss the learning opportunities like videos, webinars, blog articles and communities like element14. Take pride that you are in the filed that can change the world. Make this mind set that everyone was once a newbie and anyone can become newbie on new topics, no one was ever born with a soldering iron! It’s all about how you learn and how fast you learn.