Democratizing Hardware: Founding the First EEE Club at VIT Chennai

Engineering is not learned solely in a lecture hall. You can calculate transient voltages and thermal coefficients on paper for semesters, but until you manually route a copper trace, solder a surface-mount capacitor, and watch your prototype compile, you are not a complete hardware engineer.

In March 2024, realizing the need for a dedicated, hands-on hardware laboratory space, my co-founders and I established Havoltz — the very first Electrical and Electronics Engineering (EEE) club at VIT Chennai.

Defining the Mission

Our objective was simple: Democratize hardware prototyping. We wanted to break down the intimidation barrier surrounding electronics by providing structured mentoring, components, and real peer-to-peer workshops.

Over my tenure as Technical Lead (March 2024 – July 2025), we grew the club to 50+ active members and structured a dual-track curriculum:

1. PCB Design & Layout Track: Teaching Altium Designer, library creation, schematic captures, routing, ground pours, and EMI troubleshooting.

2. Embedded Firmware Track: Focusing on bare-metal C programming, register-level hardware configuration, timers, interrupts, and DMA buffers.

Execution Under Pressure: VOLTAICS '25

The ultimate test of our club's organizational framework was the execution of VOLTAICS '25 — a national-level 24-hour hardware hackathon. As organizers, we were responsible for:

• **Vendor & Supply Chain Coordination**: Procuring 100+ microcontrollers, specialized sensor packages, and power modules under tight budget limits.
• **Mentorship & Judging**: Inviting industry leaders and professors to guide participants.
• **Budget Tracking**: Ensuring standard institutional auditing compliance while maximizing resource allocation.

The hackathon was a resounding success, hosting 100+ participants from across the state and generating over 20 novel embedded system prototypes.

Key Leadership Takeaways

Co-founding Havoltz taught me that leadership is not about having answers — it is about establishing structures for execution:

• **Standardize Documentation**: Creating Git templates and layout wikis allowed junior members to quickly onboard.
• **Delegate Ownership**: Trusting sub-teams with budget management and workshop scheduling built a strong core of future organizers.
• **Prioritize Practical Application**: We always ended lectures early to get hands on soldering irons and oscilloscopes.

Havoltz continues to thrive at VIT Chennai, bridging the gap for the next generation of hardware founders and product creators.