16 · West Bengal, India · Independent Researcher · Builder

Code only matters
when it works
for a soul.

I am a deep-tech founder, independent researcher, and grassroots organizer from Purba Medinipur. I build systems that move the state — because technology is only real when it serves the people closest to the ground.

Every year, something happens that defies calculation. The rain. The soil. The wind. The sun. Something always betrays us. — Kartik Chandra Hazra, farmer, Purba Medinipur
SSRN Author OSHWA IN000084 3 Publications
Sk Reezaal Arafat
Founder · Project SATARK · FTOH Looking at what others miss.
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SSRN Preprints #6281398 · #6425378 Zenodo DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17089420 OSHWA Certified IN000084 Advised by IIT KGP · IIT Bombay · Columbia · Harvard/NEU 5 Govt Mandates BDO · SDO · IAS · ADA · MIDC UNICEF U-Reporter Active Phase 2 Active Kolaghat Block, West Bengal SSRN Preprints #6281398 · #6425378 Zenodo DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17089420 OSHWA Certified IN000084 Advised by IIT KGP · IIT Bombay · Columbia · Harvard/NEU 5 Govt Mandates BDO · SDO · IAS · ADA · MIDC UNICEF U-Reporter Active Phase 2 Active Kolaghat Block, West Bengal
62
Days: faulty tool
to state deployment
5
Govt mandates
BDO · SDO · IAS · ADA · MIDC
10K+
Farming families
currently covered
3
Published papers
and working papers

Who I Am

The soul comes
before the system.

I grew up in a village surrounded by five kilometers of paddy fields, watching the world through a window. My father and grandfather were my only playmates for ten years. I wanted to be an astrophysicist. But by eleven I realized the world I wanted to explore might not exist by the time I was old enough to reach it.

So I stopped watching and started building. Not because I had perfect resources — I built my first IoT nodes by scavenging chips from a government lab. Not because I had institutional backing — I cold-emailed professors at Columbia and Harvard. Not because I had permission — I walked into government offices and asked the right questions until the machinery moved.

The fire they light is not defiance. It is the answer to a question that the state has refused to solve. SATARK exists to make that question — finally, operationally, at scale — answerable. — FTOH Research Collaborative, Kolaghat · February 2026

01

Move it with soul

Technology exists because some soul first imagined it — from philosophy, from rage, from refusal. Code without soul is just math. I build the soul first, then the system.

02

Learn from those called small

Among ordinary people there are Auls, Bauls, Kartabhajas — sects whose wisdom runs deeper than any textbook. I do not consider it beneath my dignity to learn from people institutions have called small.

03

Prove the physics in a cup

Perfect conditions are a luxury. I build with whatever is available, prove the model at small scale, then use that proof to move the machinery. Execution speed cannot be replicated overnight.

04

The providers deserve better

Farmers were the first intelligence system humanity built to make life easier. They fed every civilization that came after. They deserve partners, not punishments.

Technical Stack & Research Capabilities

What I actually
know how to do.

🧠

Systems Thinking & Problem Design

Socio-Technical System Design Climate Risk Modeling Intervention Architecture Tech + Behavior Integration First-Principles Thinking
🔬

Field Research & Qualitative Analysis

Primary Field Research Farmer Interviews & Surveys Behavioral Pattern Analysis Trust System Mapping Hypothesis-Driven Design Positive Deviance Framework
🛰️

Remote Sensing & Geospatial

INSAT-3D/3DS Sentinel-2 Landsat-9 GOES-16 NASA VIIRS GK-2A Google Earth Engine Thermal Anomaly Detection LULC Analysis Multi-Constellation Fusion
🤖

AI & Deep Learning

SwinIR Vision Transformer Deep Learning SR Domain Adaptation Multi-Task Learning Transfer Learning NDVI Pipelines Radiometric Integrity Model Constraint Design Signal vs Noise Handling
⚡

IoT Systems & Hardware

ESP8266 / ESP32 LoRaWAN Networks Arduino Soil Hydraulic Sensors Wind Corridor Mapping Edge Deployment Solar Power Systems OSHWA Documentation Hardware Prototyping
🌍

Field Deployment & B2G

Rural Deployment Strategy Bureaucracy Navigation Mandate Acquisition Stakeholder Coordination Pilot Execution Community-First Design Guardian Network Mgmt Social Capital Analysis
🧾

Communication & Writing

Research Paper Writing Technical Documentation Grant & Application Writing Cross-Domain Explanation Science Communication Policy Brief Writing
🌐

Languages

Bengali — Native English — C1 Hindi — C1 Japanese — A1
Bengali
English
Hindi
Japanese

Core Project · OSHWA IN000084

Project SATARK

India bleeds $24 billion annually to stubble burning — not because farmers are careless, but because they are trapped in a 14-day harvest window with zero logistical support and a state surveillance system that is architecturally blind. INSAT gives 24/7 coverage but blurry pixels. Polar satellites give resolution but a 4-hour lag. The government sees smoke, sends police, fines the farmer. It criminalizes survival. I built SATARK to intercept the matchstick before it is struck.

In 62 days — while sitting my 10th board examinations — I secured five government mandates, deployed a 50-node IoT grid across Kolaghat Block, activated 30+ field Guardians, and published peer-reviewed research. SATARK is certified open-source hardware under CERN-OHL-S-2.0 and GPL-3.0-OR-LATER.

OSHWA IN000084

Open Source Hardware · Certified

IN000084 · March 20, 2026

CERN-OHL-S-2.0 · GPL-3.0-OR-LATER

  • Jan 13BDO Kolaghat — Phase 1 Authorization
  • Feb 13BDO Kolaghat — Phase 2: 50-node grid, state rooftop access, ATL partnerships
  • Feb 13ADA Egra — Assistant Director of Agriculture pilot authorization
  • Feb 2026IAS SDO Karamveer Keshav — Technical vetting; committed to state-wide BDO facilitation in April
  • Feb 2026MIDC Executive Engineers — Hardware architecture clearance

Engine 01

Predictive NDVI Pipeline

Fuses multi-constellation satellite telemetry to track the biological shift of crop from green to brown, triggering administrative alerts days before burning pressure peaks. The bureaucratic weapon that moves the state before the match is struck.

Engine 02 — SATARK PRIME

SwinIR Vision Transformer

Cascaded Deep Learning Super-Resolution upscaling INSAT's blurry 24/7 stream in real-time, catching micro-fires the state misses in the 4-hour polar satellite blind spot.

Ground Truth Layer

IoT Sentry Nodes

ESP8266/ESP32 nodes measuring real-time soil hydraulic conductivity and micro-wind corridors. Built initially from chips scavenged from a government Atal Tinkering Lab.

Human Layer

30+ Student Guardians

The actual heartbeat of SATARK. Field operatives trained as the final-mile logistics bridge between AI output and the farmer on the ground. Technology means nothing without human trust to execute it.

Research

The papers behind
the mud.

Preprint · Elsevier / SSRN · 2026

The Combustion Paradox: Autonomous Hydrological Security and Soil-Moisture Preservation via Multi-Constellation Telemetry and Vision Transformers

Sk Reezaal Arafat — FTOH Research Collaborative · SSRN #6425378
Advised by IIT KGP · IIT Bombay · Columbia · Harvard/NEU

#6425378Read on SSRN

Published · Zenodo · 2025

A Study on the Impacts of Environmental Unawareness and Strategies to Foster Climate Concern and Youth Engagement in Marginalized Regions

Sk Reezaal Arafat · DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17089420

ZenodoRead Paper

Working Paper · Forthcoming thesis · 2026

Positive Deviance and the Trust Gap: A Field-Level Deconstruction of Residue-Use Alternatives in West Bengal

Sk Reezaal Arafat — FTOH Research Collaborative · Part of: The Combustion Paradox (full thesis)

FieldRead Paper

Scientific Correspondence & Expert Contributions

The people who
replied.

This is serious work. The rigor reflects exactly the kind of applied social science that rarely comes from institutional settings, let alone from a student who was sitting Board exams when we last spoke.

Dr. Daniel P. Aldrich
Dean's Professor · Harvard / Northeastern
14,700+ citations · 5 books

Harvard · Northeastern University

Dr. Daniel P. Aldrich

Dean's Professor of Resilience · Director, Security & Resilience Studies · Co-Director, Global Resilience Institute

Resilience framework, social capital strategy, Positive Deviant identification protocol, field methodology. Active correspondence on SATARK's sociological architecture.

Columbia University

Dr. Ruth DeFries

Denning Family University Professor · Co-founding Dean Emerita, Columbia Climate School

Land-use remote sensing, mechanization-fire dynamics. Adopted "Punjabification" — coined by Reezaal — in correspondence, confirming its conceptual validity.

IIT Kharagpur

Dr. Adway Mitra

Professor, Centre for AI · Machine Learning & Geospatial AI

Rejected spatio-temporal model — sparse data, overfitting risk. Designed domain adaptation strategy and multi-stage LULC-to-fire-detection transfer pipeline. Peer-level ML architecture shaping.

IIT Bombay · IIIT Sri City

Dr. BK Mohan & Dr. Arun PV

Adjunct Professor CSRE IIT Bombay · Assistant Professor CSE IIITS

Set resolution constraints (4km→200m). BK Mohan personally routed to Dr. Arun PV — who validated Transformer over GAN for radiometric integrity. Three-person IIT chain activated within 24 hours.

Validation 01 · AI Architecture

Deep ML Architecture Shaping — Not Surface Advice

Dr. Adway Mitra (IIT KGP) rejected the spatio-temporal model outright — sparse data, overfitting risk. He then designed the domain adaptation strategy from scratch and architected the multi-stage transfer learning pipeline: LULC classification first, then fire detection. This is peer-level intervention in a live research architecture by one of India's leading geospatial ML researchers.

Spatio-Temporal Rejected Domain Adaptation Multi-Stage Transfer LULC Pipeline

Validation 02 · Technical Chain

Peer-Level Routing — IIT Mentorship Chain in 24 Hours

Dr. BK Mohan (IIT Bombay) set the resolution constraints for the 4km to 200m upscale. When the question exceeded his domain, he personally forwarded to his former student Dr. Arun PV that same night. Arun validated Transformer over GAN for radiometric integrity the next morning. A three-person IIT mentorship chain activated within 24 hours of a cold email from a 16-year-old in rural West Bengal.

BK Mohan → Arun PV Transformer > GAN Radiometric Integrity 24 Hour Chain

Field Results & Measurable Impact

Not theoretical.
In the ground.

34
Farmers directly
interviewed across
Purba Medinipur
0/34
Farmers with awareness
of Community Health
Centre (CHC) resources
9
Distinct Positive Deviant
practices documented
in field synthesis
10K+
Farming families
currently covered
by SATARK deployment
50
IoT Sentry Nodes
authorized for
Kolaghat Block
5
Government mandates
secured in under
62 days

Field Finding 01

The Ash-Fertilizer Myth

Across field interviews, a deeply entrenched epistemic barrier emerged: farmers believe burning biomass is biologically necessary to create fertilizer. Scientific data on soil microbe destruction is actively rejected. The myth persists because ash does buffer pH short-term — making it a slow-variable misconception that individual observation never corrects. SATARK's intervention strategy now targets this obliquely using the PUSA Decomposer as an additive frame, not a replacement.

Field Finding 02

The Destructive Equilibrium

When your neighbor burns, you burn. The practice is synchronized precisely because the social fabric is tight — bonding capital enforcing a harmful norm. This gap in Putnam and Portes's resilience literature was identified directly from Purba Medinipur field observations and confirmed by Dr. Daniel Aldrich (Harvard/Northeastern), who noted it as an under-documented edge case in his own work.

Field Finding 03

Kartik Chandra Hazra & Majidan Bibi

Two farmers whose testimony directly shaped SATARK's architecture. Kartik described "every year something happens that defies calculation — rain, soil, wind, sun, something always betrays us." Majidan Bibi stated "if we do not burn, we do not plant, and if we do not plant, we do not eat." These were not quotes selected for rhetorical effect. They were the ground truth from which the entire system was reverse-engineered.

Field Finding 04

The Convenience Bypass — and What It Proved

SATARK temporarily bypassed the Ash-Fertilizer Myth by offering free logistical extraction — proving that convenience ultimately trumps belief. Dr. Aldrich's response reframed this: "Behavioral change that begins as convenience often becomes identity over 2-3 seasons." The bypass was not a workaround. It was the mechanism. Phase 2 is now architected around this finding.

Everything Built

The work that
exists.

2026 · Active Deployment · OSHWA IN000084

Project SATARK

Dual-engine AI and IoT infrastructure intercepting India's $24B stubble burning crisis. 5 government mandates. 10,000+ families covered. Certified open-source hardware. State-grade deployment in 62 days.

Deep LearningIoTB2GOpen Source
View Project →

2023 · Active

For The Only Home

Youth-led climate NGO with 30+ members and volunteers across India, Bangladesh and UK. Kashmir and Dhaka workshops. Climate Awareness Index and Project ReLeaf launching 2026.

NGOCommunityClimate

2025 · Beta Deployed

VEco

AI-powered sustainability verification platform deployed in local market. Real-time scores on product sustainability claims. No PhD required — just the truth, instant and accessible.

AIConsumer TechTransparency
Try Beta →

Certifications & Credentials

Proof of the
learning.

🎓
CS50
Harvard University
📊
Google Analytics
Google
🤖
AI for All
Intel
🌱
Sustainable Dev in Practice
UNITAR
📈
Forward Program
McKinsey & Company
🔧
OSHWA IN000084
Open Source Hardware Assoc.
📰
U-Reporter
UNICEF
🌍
PNTSE AIR 990
All India Ranking
📚
SSRN Author
Elsevier / SSRN Network
🧬
Zenodo DOI
CERN Open Research

The Journey So Far

From a window in
a paddy field to here.

Age 11 · 2020

The Window Moment

Growing up surrounded by five kilometers of paddy fields, watching the world through glass. Realized during lockdown that the world I wanted to explore might not exist by the time I was old enough to reach it. Climate change stopped being abstract. It was here, in the village.

OriginClimate Awareness

Age 13 · 2022–23

From Lectures to Building — FTOH Founded

Started a WhatsApp channel, lectured 300+ students about carbon footprints. A 9-year-old asked "Dada, how do we even know which product is better?" Could not answer. That humiliation became the turning point — from clever to wise. Founded For The Only Home (FTOH). Ran workshops in Kashmir and Dhaka reaching 200+ students.

FTOH FoundedCommunityFirst Build

Oct 2025

First Academic Cold Email — Prof. Sally Russell, Leeds

First cold email to a university professor — Prof. Sally Russell at the University of Leeds on behaviour change and climate awareness. She replied. Learned that the gap between knowing and doing is where real change happens. This single interaction shaped the entire SATARK sociological layer.

First Cold EmailBehavior Change

Dec 24, 2025

SATARK — Faulty Research Tool

SATARK begins as a broken research prototype — a fire detection concept running on a consumer laptop with no ground truth, no architecture validation, no government contact. Just an observation: West Bengal was Punjabifying. Combine harvesters arriving. Fires following the machines.

SATARK OriginPrototypePunjabification

Jan 5–12, 2026

Columbia & Harvard Reply — The Architecture Pivots

Cold-emailed Dr. Daniel Aldrich (Harvard/Northeastern) and Dr. Ruth DeFries (Columbia). Aldrich replied with a graduate-level analysis of destructive equilibrium and positive deviance. DeFries replied in 84 minutes while traveling in the field and adopted the term "Punjabification" in her response. The sociological architecture of SATARK was rebuilt from scratch based on these exchanges.

AldrichDeFriesSociological Pivot

Jan 8–11, 2026

IIT Mentorship Chain — Technical Architecture Validated

Cold-emailed Dr. BK Mohan (IIT Bombay) about SwinIR feasibility for thermal upscaling. He set the resolution constraints, then personally forwarded to Dr. Arun PV. Arun validated Transformer over GAN for radiometric integrity. Cold-emailed Dr. Adway Mitra (IIT KGP) — he rejected spatio-temporal model, designed domain adaptation strategy and multi-stage transfer learning pipeline. Entire IIT chain activated within days.

IIT KGPIIT BombaySwinIRArchitecture Set

Jan–Feb 2026

Bureaucracy Penetrated — 5 Mandates in 62 Days

Walked into the Kolaghat BDO office during 10th board exams. He signed within 10 minutes and asked for a block-specific dashboard. Followed by SDO, IAS SDO Karamveer Keshav (who asked "Kaha se Btech kiye ho?" not knowing the age), ADA, and MIDC. Five official state mandates secured in 62 days. IAS personally committed to driving the team to every BDO in April.

BDO MandateIASADAState Deployment

Mar 20, 2026

OSHWA Certified — IN000084

SATARK's IoT hardware stack certified as open-source hardware by the Open Source Hardware Association under CERN-OHL-S-2.0 and GPL-3.0-OR-LATER. First OSHWA-certified agricultural climate intervention system from India.

OSHWA IN000084Open SourceCertified

Get In Touch

If the problem is real,
let's talk.

I am not interested in titles or formalities. If you are building something that matters, researching something urgent, or working on a problem that deserves better — reach out.

[email protected]
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