Rhythm Bazari.

Hi, I’m Rhythm, a founder & engineer↗, robotics builder↗, and STEM access advocate↗ building practical technology and opportunities through Minorities in STEM and its growing community.

Rhythm presenting at NSLClet’s connect!

● ● as seen at

FIRST RoboticsMicrosoftSkillsUSANSLCNITJAAHorizonsAspen InstituteUnited Nations
THE THROUGHLINE

Minorities in STEM connects the work.

Each role feeds the same mission: learn a skill, build something useful, bring it into the community, and help more students see themselves in STEM.

what I’ve built, led, and contributed to

Experience

01

Work & Ventures

Products, technical roles, and entrepreneurial work.

Founder & Product Builder

Avants AI ↗
Community Edition → full recruiting platform
  • Started Avants AI Community Edition under KR3 during my AI internship as my first AI community project, giving people accessible tools to practice interviews, understand their résumés, build career-ready skills, and participate in AI-training work.
  • Expanded that original community concept into a broader recruiting platform connecting candidates and employers.
  • Designed a two-sided recruiting system spanning job discovery, applications, AI résumé scoring, matching, voice and chat interviews, candidate coaching, and employer review.
  • Built employer workflows for job management, applicant evaluation, scheduling, messaging, analytics, and hiring, plus an Earn marketplace for paid AI-training tasks.
  • Developed the platform with Python, Flask, OpenAI, Supabase, PostgreSQL, Daily.co, and Stripe.

AI Department Head & CSR Team Lead

KR3 Information Systems ↗
Current · AI department leadership · Leading 20+ interns
  • Head KR3’s AI department, setting technical direction and leading the development of AI-enabled internal and community products.
  • Lead a 20+ person intern corporate social responsibility team building technology projects for community impact.
  • Set project direction, coordinate intern work, and guide teams from problem discovery through prototyping, testing, and delivery.
  • Lead UpGive as part of the intern CSR team’s community-project portfolio, coordinating its development with the wider team.
  • Lead the Cyber Defense Command System and KR3 Laptop Tracker, coordinating product requirements, AI strategy, development, testing, and delivery.
  • Built the KR3 Laptop Tracker to register, assign, locate, and audit organizational hardware across its lifecycle.
  • Helped develop a free career portal for NITJAA’s 17,000+ alumni, centralizing opportunities that had previously been distributed through WhatsApp.
  • Translate operational and community needs into focused digital tools while coordinating product scoping, interface design, documentation, and stakeholder feedback.

iPledge · Carbon Impact Platform

Microsoft · Community & Social Impact
Sustainability · Community action · Impact tracking
  • My Microsoft community and social-impact work centers on iPledge, a platform that helps people turn everyday sustainability commitments into trackable actions.
  • The project brings together 11 pledges across mobility, food, energy, and materials, with actions tailored to Indian households.
  • Participants choose pledges and submit evidence, while reviewers assess submissions before estimated carbon savings are added to campaign totals.
  • The platform includes personal progress dashboards, campaign reporting, leaderboards, and certificates to help people follow their contributions.

Founder & Product Engineer

Minorities in STEM · AI Initiatives
AI Literacy Academy · STEMbud
  • Design approachable learning products that convert complex AI concepts into structured lessons, examples, and practice.
  • Built full-stack experiences using React, TypeScript, OpenAI, Express, and Supabase.
  • Focus on student-centered interaction, responsible AI use, and explanations that reinforce learning instead of replacing it.
  • Develop these tools as part of MIS’s wider effort to make practical AI learning accessible to students.
02

Leadership & Engineering

Organizations, teams, speaking, and technical leadership.

UN Delegate & Invited Speaker

Youth and AI Summit · International Youth Conference 14
AI for Social Good · Youth leadership · International dialogue
  • Youth and AI Summit: Delegate.
  • International Youth Conference 14: Invited to speak about AI for Social Good on the Digital Innovation & AI panel, joining youth voices discussing digital innovation and AI transformation. The panel will take place in person in New York City and be livestreamed on YouTube to a global audience.
View delegate confirmation ↓

Research Scholar

Pioneer Academics ↗
2025 · LEGO® Design Values & Practices · College credit through Oberlin College
  • Studied technical, social, and ethical principles of design through the LEGO Group’s brand identity, values, and product-development practices.
  • Researched Vienna’s Hofburg Palace as a World Heritage landmark and proposed an original model for the LEGO Architecture product line.
  • Translated architectural features, including the façade, arches, ornamentation, statues, columns, and three domes, into a buildable digital model.
  • Worked within real product constraints: 450–750 current LEGO elements, accurate scale and detail, structural stability, durability, realism, and a rewarding build experience.
  • Compared earlier concepts, documented their weaknesses, selected a final direction, and repeatedly revised the model in response to Professor Ben Laugelli’s feedback.
  • Produced a 24-page Conceptual Design Proposal covering background research, requirements, concepts considered, concept selection, construction decisions, product fit, and references.
  • Earned an A. Professor Laugelli highlighted my perseverance, constructive participation, ability to implement feedback, and promise as a researcher and designer.
  • Applied the research process, design thinking, and iteration methods to MIS engineering education and student prototype programs.
AFinal grade24 pagesOriginal proposal450–750Element constraint
Faculty recommendation

Professor Ben Laugelli · Pioneer Academics

Open full screen ↗

Founder & Executive Director

Minorities in STEM ↗
2024 – Present · Global youth nonprofit
  • Founded and lead a youth-driven organization expanding equitable access to STEM through chapters, workshops, mentorship, research, media, and technology.
  • Grew the network to 40+ chapters and 300+ volunteers, with programs and resources reaching 300,000+ people across 50+ countries.
  • Built partnerships and programming with Microsoft, FIRST Robotics, SkillsUSA, Horizons, and other education and workforce organizations.
  • Direct strategy, partnerships, chapter development, volunteer leadership, events, digital infrastructure, and public storytelling.
Rhythm at the Minorities in STEM booth at SkillsUSA, with robotics projects and outreach displays
Representing Minorities in STEM at SkillsUSA.

Robotics Builder, Mentor & FIRST Community Lead

FIRST Robotics ↗
Engineering · Team formation · Opportunity access · Storytelling
  • Built and troubleshot electrical systems, fabricated mechanical components, and created custom CAD and 3D-printed parts across rapid prototyping, CAN bus wiring, integration, repair, and competition preparation.
  • Contributed to a team that earned the district Engineering Inspiration Award and advanced to the FIRST World Championship.
  • Through Minorities in STEM, founded 20+ FRC teams and supported a network of 25,000+ FIRST alumni, mentors, and students.
  • Present new education, leadership, research, and career opportunities to FIRST participants and connect teams with the wider MIS network.
  • Collected and shared the unique stories of 20+ people across the FIRST and broader STEM communities, helping their experiences reach a wider audience.
  • Used major competitions to grow MIS chapters, partnerships, and the FlyerFly awareness campaign.

Speaker & Community Organizer

Conferences and Hackathons
NSLC · NITJAA · SkillsUSA · Student hackathons
  • Present technology, entrepreneurship, and social-impact work to student and professional audiences.
  • Led sessions at NSLC and NITJAA and represented Minorities in STEM at SkillsUSA Nationals.
  • Organize collaborative events where students form teams, build projects, receive feedback, and present solutions.
03

Volunteering & Service

Long-term community work supporting students and patients.

Supervisor & Robotics Program Lead

Horizons Atlanta ↗
Jun 2023 – Present · Children
  • Created and led my school’s robotics program, the starting point for my work expanding access to hands-on engineering.
  • When the school moved to discontinue the program, I advocated to preserve the opportunity while concurrently bringing robotics education to students through Horizons.
  • Lead hands-on robotics programming for hundreds of students using VEX/FTC concepts, design challenges, and collaborative engineering.
  • Supervise activities, mentor learners, and help students move from curiosity to building and testing their own ideas.
  • Connected Horizons with Minorities in STEM around a shared mission of reducing the opportunity gap.

Georgia Branch Director

Volunteer Tutors Organization ↗
Jul 2024 – Present · Children
  • Coordinate local tutoring and engineering education for students across the Georgia branch.
  • Teach CAD, app development, manufacturing, and product design using TinkerCAD and Onshape.
  • Guide students from digital models through iteration and into practical 3D-printable prototypes.

Volunteer Leader · Assistive Design

Shepherd Center ↗
Oct 2023 – Mar 2025 · Atlanta, Georgia · Accessibility engineering
  • Volunteered with Shepherd Center, an Atlanta rehabilitation hospital specializing in care for people with spinal-cord injuries, brain injuries, stroke, and other complex neurological conditions.
  • Led a team using CAD and 3D printing to create practical assistive devices that support writing, grooming, dressing, showering, positioning, and wheelchair use.
  • Designed and fabricated 11 models: two writing splints, a U-cuff mount, dressing tool, adjustable IC mirror, cup holder, toothbrush holder, small and large deodorant holders, shower-head bracket, and shower-brush bracket.
  • Adapted dimensions and mounting geometry around individual needs, physical constraints, chair configurations, printability, and everyday use.

Volunteer

Boys & Girls Clubs of America
Oct 2023 – Present · Children
  • Supervise students and support a safe, encouraging environment for learning and exploration.
  • Bring Minorities in STEM engineering resources and hands-on DIY activities into local club programming.

Volunteer & Ambassador

The Social Institute
Mar 2024 – Present · Digital well-being
  • Speak with hundreds of students about social media, digital choices, and challenges young people experience online.
  • Contribute a student perspective to conversations about healthy technology use and responsible online communities.
  • Bring digital well-being lessons back into MIS youth programming and community guidance.

Student Intern & Team Leader

TurnUp Activism
Sep 2023 – Present · Civic engagement
  • Research civil-rights issues and support youth civic participation, community education, and voter engagement.
  • Led a 20-person student team advocating for equal representation, coordinating research, outreach, and accessible advocacy materials.
  • Recognized as a two-time President’s Volunteer Service Award recipient.
  • Applied civic research and organizing methods to MIS advocacy, policy ideas, and community outreach.
learning, research & credentials

Education

Education

Woodward Academy

Class of 2027 · Atlanta, Georgia

Google · Nov 2024

Professional Machine Learning Engineer Study Guide

Google Cloud Skills Boost · Jul 2024

Introduction to AI and Machine Learning on Google Cloud

Google · Jun 2024

Machine Learning Operations Principles

Built through the MIS ecosystemAI · education · workforce access · community infrastructure
how I turn ideas into tools

Project Case Studies

01 · FLAGSHIP · BEGAN AS A COMMUNITY PROJECT

Avants AI

5,000+ resumesCommunity Edition · Job Matcher & Resume Summarizer

Avants began with the Community Edition under KR3 during my AI internship, before expanding into a broader recruiting platform for candidates, employers, and contributors.

Problem

Recruiters may give a résumé only an initial 7.4-second screen, leaving strong candidates vulnerable to being overlooked before their experience is understood. Length, unclear formatting, and avoidable typos can consume that narrow window, while a résumé alone still reveals little about how someone thinks or communicates. View the eye-tracking study ↗

Method

I mapped both sides of the hiring journey (discovery, applications, matching, résumé analysis, interviewing, evaluation, scheduling, and hiring), then built AI into the moments where additional context could improve a decision.

Solution

A recruiting platform with AI résumé scoring, job matching, voice and chat interviews, candidate coaching, employer review tools, meetings, messaging, and an Earn marketplace for paid AI-training tasks.

Impacted 2,000+ users

Avants AI has impacted over 2,000 users.

How it started

The Community Edition began under KR3 during my AI internship: a free, community-focused space for interview practice, résumé insight, career preparation, and paid AI-training opportunities. I later built the employer and recruiting side around that foundation.

Python · Flask · OpenAI · Supabase · PostgreSQL · Daily.co · Stripe · Product systems
02 · AI EDUCATION

AI Literacy Academy

Problem

AI is reshaping school and work, but most beginners encounter jargon, scattered resources, and no clear learning path.

Method

I organized the subject into approachable modules, progressive lessons, and practice experiences designed around how first-time learners build confidence.

Solution

A guided web academy that turns AI concepts into practical, self-paced learning students can immediately apply.

JavaScript · React · OpenAI · Education design
03 · PERSONALIZED LEARNING

STEMbud

3,000 chats500+ users
Problem

Students often get stuck between a confusing lesson and a generic search result that does not understand what they already know.

Method

I explored a conversational tutoring flow that breaks questions into smaller steps and adapts explanations to the learner.

Solution

An AI study partner offering contextual explanations, guided examples, and practice without replacing the student’s thinking.

TypeScript · AI tutoring · Student-centered UX
04 · OPERATIONS

KR3 Laptop Tracker

Problem

Equipment records become unreliable when assignment, ownership, and lifecycle information live across disconnected spreadsheets.

Method

I mapped the device workflow from intake through assignment and return, then designed the interface around the decisions operators make most often.

Solution

A focused laptop-management system for registering, locating, assigning, returning, and auditing KR3 hardware.

HTML · JavaScript · Product workflow design · KR3
05 · CYBERSECURITY & AI

Cyber Defense Command System

Problem

Cyberattacks are difficult for individuals to understand and manage because most defensive tools assume specialized security knowledge or coding experience.

Method

As AI Department Head, I lead the product and AI direction, translating complex security tasks into guided workflows, plain-language AI analysis, and one-click response actions.

Solution

A no-code cyber-defense command system that helps individuals monitor threats, understand what is happening, receive AI-guided recommendations, and initiate containment or response actions without writing code. An optional editor remains available for advanced users.

No-code security · AI-guided response · Cybersecurity workflow · Product leadership · KR3
KR3 · INTERN CSR TEAM · MATERIAL REDISTRIBUTION

UpGive

Redistributing surplus materials so useful resources can reach people and community organizations that need them.

Problem

Usable materials can sit unused in one organization while another lacks the resources to carry out its work. The challenge is connecting that surplus with a community need and making redistribution practical.

Methodology

The project centers on a material redistribution workflow: identify available surplus, understand what recipients need, and organize the information needed to connect the two. The focus is reuse and access, rather than treating usable materials as waste.

Solution

UpGive is a community technology project focused on redirecting surplus materials to people and organizations that can put them to use. It belongs to the KR3 intern CSR team’s community-project portfolio.

My role and the purpose behind the project

Read more about UpGive

My role

I lead UpGive within KR3’s intern CSR team, coordinating its development as part of the 20+ person team I lead to build community projects.

Intended impact

Keep useful materials in circulation and improve access to resources. The goal is to turn surplus into practical community support, not simply to create another inventory list.

Material redistribution · Resource reuse · Community access · KR3 intern CSR team

Minorities in STEM

The website behind our nonprofit.

I built the site so students could find tutoring, join a chapter, and sign up for events—and volunteers could find a way to help.

What’s on the site

Chapter information, tutoring, MISHacks, upcoming events, and free learning resources.

My work

I organized our programs into pages and built the website around the questions students and volunteers bring us: what’s available, how to join, and where to start.

07 · STORYTELLING & ACCESS

BUILD: Who Gets to Build?

20+ stories shared
Problem

People from underrepresented STEM communities are often discussed through statistics while their individual paths, obstacles, and contributions remain unheard.

Method

I collected and shaped first-person stories from more than 20 people across FIRST and the wider STEM community, focusing on what helped them enter, persist, and lead.

Solution

BUILD is a living story collection that centers the people behind STEM, making their experiences visible and helping future builders recognize that they belong.

Oral history · Community storytelling · FIRST · Minorities in STEM
everything on GitHub

Archive

Experiments, learning projects, prototypes, and shipped products, from my first programs to current work.

Learning to code · YouTube-guided projects

Learning by building

I built Turtle Token, RhymGEN, and ChatNova while learning to code through YouTube tutorials. Following along and working through the code helped me understand the building blocks I would later use in larger projects.

2025 · Solidity · OpenZeppelin · Hardhat · JavaScript

Turtle Token

A tutorial-guided ERC-20 token project that introduced me to smart contracts, ownership checks, token balances, and automated tests.

  • Token contract: Used OpenZeppelin’s ERC20Capped and ERC20Burnable extensions for a capped supply and token-burning functionality.
  • Initialization: Set the owner, minted the initial supply, and scaled token amounts using the token’s decimals.
  • Reward logic: Added an update hook that conditionally mints a reward to the block producer when the supply cap allows it.
  • Access control: Restricted reward changes with an onlyOwner modifier.
  • Test code: Used Hardhat, ethers, and Chai to write checks for deployment settings, ownership, transfers, and balances.
Explore the implemented code

Excerpts from the tutorial-guided implementation in my repository.

Solidity · Owner-controlled rewards

function setBlockReward(uint256 reward) public onlyOwner{
    blockReward = reward * (10 ** decimals());
}
modifier onlyOwner{
    require(msg.sender == owner, "Only the owner can call this function");
    _;
}

The modifier checks the caller before allowing the reward value to change.

JavaScript · Transfers between accounts

await turtleToken.transfer(addr1.address, 50);
const addr1Balance = await turtleToken.balanceOf(addr1.address);
expect(addr1Balance).to.equal(50);

await turtleToken.connect(addr1).transfer(addr2.address, 50);
const addr2Balance = await turtleToken.balanceOf(addr2.address);
expect(addr2Balance).to.equal(50);

The test switches signers to exercise a second transfer and checks the receiving account’s balance.

YouTube-guided learning project

RhymGEN

An image-generation project I built while following YouTube coding tutorials. I used it to learn about model APIs, prompts, asynchronous JavaScript, and turning generated output into a usable interface.

YouTube-guided learning project

ChatNova

A conversational AI project I built while learning through YouTube tutorials. It helped me understand how a chat interface connects user input to a model response.

Featured project

FlyerFly Movement

Launched in May 2026 to turn printed flyers into a tool for advocacy. At FIRST Worlds, students, mentors, and teams carried the campaign directly through the event, putting opportunities and community resources into people’s hands. More than 300 flyers were distributed across FIRST Worlds and SkillsUSA, reaching an estimated 50,000+ people.

CAD · fabrication · human-centered engineering

Physical Design Lab

A growing archive of assistive products, competition-ready robot parts, electronics, and student prototypes, designed around real constraints and made to be used.

Rendered Shepherd Center writing-splint assistive device11 ASSISTIVE DEVICESCAD / STL
Featured build system

Assistive 3D Prints for the Shepherd Center

Shepherd Center is an Atlanta rehabilitation hospital specializing in spinal-cord injury, brain injury, stroke, and other complex neurological care. As a volunteer leader, I used CAD and additive manufacturing to turn specific accessibility needs into practical tools for daily life.

Problem

Patients may need customized support for writing, holding personal items, grooming, dressing, showering, or attaching accessories to wheelchairs with different dimensions.

Method

I translated each use case into measurements and constraints, modeled the device in CAD, revised its fit and geometry, and prepared it for reliable 3D printing.

Solution

I produced 11 fabrication-ready designs: writing and squiggle splints, a U-cuff mount, dressing tool, adjustable mirror, cup and toothbrush holders, two deodorant holders, and two shower brackets.

Download all 11 assistive-device designs

These are the original fabrication-ready STL files from the Shepherd Center project.

PhotUP near-infrared light concept visualizationEmbedded Fusion 360 preview of the Nanobot1 CAD modelBiomedical moonshot concept
PhotUP · Original nanorobot CAD by Rhythm Bazari

Precision Lymphoma Therapy Concept

A research and design exploration of photodynamic nanocarriers for targeting Hodgkin lymphoma while reducing collateral damage to healthy immune cells. I created the nanorobot CAD model shown here to visualize the concept.

Problem

Conventional photodynamic therapy has limited tissue penetration, while treatment can also harm healthy white blood cells and further weaken the immune system.

Method

Model an approach using upconversion nanoparticles to absorb near-infrared light and emit higher-frequency light near the target tissue.

Proposed solution

A localized UCNP-assisted photosensitizer concept intended to concentrate reactive-oxygen activity around affected lymphocytes and reduce light scatter into healthy cells.

Wearable robotics

Somatosensory Glove + Robotic Hand

Click to open the full case study ↗

Problem

Remote robotic controls can be unintuitive and disconnect a user’s natural movement from the machine.

Methodology

Map hand gestures to robotic motion, integrate wearable sensors and Bluetooth communication, then iterate across the electronics, mechanical assembly, and response behavior.

Solution

A wearable glove prototype that translates human hand movement into commands for a robotic hand.

Outcome

A working exploration of embodied control, wireless communication, and accessible human-machine interaction.

Bluetooth · sensors · electronics · CAD · robotic actuation
Electromechanical system

School T-Shirt Cannon

The first electrical system I ever built.

Problem

A school spirit launcher requires dependable control of a physical mechanism while remaining easy to operate and troubleshoot.

Methodology

Plan the electrical architecture, wire and integrate components, coordinate mechanical actuation, then test connections and failure points.

Solution

An integrated electrical and mechanical control system for the school’s T-shirt cannon.

Outcome

A practical build that strengthened hands-on skills in wiring, soldering, fabrication, and system debugging.

electronics · soldering · wiring · mechanical integration
Volunteer Tutors Organization

Teaching Students to Design & Build

CAD, app development, and hands-on prototyping with students.

My role

As Georgia Branch Director, I coordinated local tutoring and engineering education through Volunteer Tutors Organization.

What we taught

We introduced students to CAD, app development, manufacturing, and product design, using TinkerCAD and Onshape to help them turn ideas into digital models.

How we worked

I guided students through revising their designs and moving from on-screen models to practical 3D-printable prototypes.

What students practiced

Students connected design decisions to fabrication, learning how to develop an idea, improve it through iteration, and prepare it to be made.

Volunteer Tutors Organization · TinkerCAD · Onshape · app development · 3D prototyping
Visit Volunteer Tutors Organization ↗
What’s inside the model archive

Eleven original Shepherd Center STL files are hosted directly in this portfolio for individual download. Tools across the wider portfolio include Onshape, TinkerCAD, Autodesk Fusion 360, AutoCAD, 3D printing, electronics, soldering, and CAN bus systems.

how I got started

My Timeline

Volunteering with Horizons and joining robotics at Woodward.

I was volunteering with Horizons while participating on the robotics team at Woodward. These experiences brought together my interests in engineering and working with students.

Exploring coding.

While exploring coding, I followed YouTube tutorials and built small projects like Turtle Token, RhymGEN, and ChatNova. I tried out smart contracts, image generation, and chat interfaces as I figured out what I enjoyed building. Those experiments laid the groundwork for Avants AI and the projects that followed.

Creating Avants AI Community Edition.

During my AI internship at KR3, I moved beyond standalone demos and started Avants AI Community Edition under KR3 as my first AI community project. It began with accessible résumé insight, interview practice, career preparation, and opportunities to contribute to AI-training work; the employer and recruiting platform grew from that foundation.

Building AI around the Minorities in STEM mission.

At the same time, Minorities in STEM became the community where new AI ideas could solve real access problems. We began kickstarting projects that help students learn AI, get personalized STEM support, find opportunities, organize resources, and build confidence using emerging technology.

A growing ecosystem of community AI products.

AI Literacy Academy, STEMbud, Avants AI, the MIS platform, community hackathons, and related experiments now connect one technical journey: learn the tools, build something useful, listen to the community, and scale what works.

Using AI as infrastructure for opportunity.

I’m focused on building responsible products that help more people learn, demonstrate their abilities, access work, and participate in technology with a clear purpose.

awards & distinctions

Awards & Honors

Kroger Hero Award2025
FIRST Engineering Inspiration AwardDistrict recognition and advancement to the FIRST World Championship
President’s Volunteer Service AwardTwo-time recipient for sustained community service
FIRST Semifinalist AwardRecognized as a semifinalist in FIRST Robotics competition
Aspen Institute · Center for Rising Generations InviteeSelected as one of 350 invitees from thousands of applicants
The Congressional Award Gold MedalGold Medal recipient
where the work has traveled

Press

Features, profiles, interviews, and recognition involving Rhythm and Minorities in STEM.

Open Global 100 Ideas publication featuring a profile of Minorities in STEM
Sponsored publishing collaboration

Global 100 Ideas: Bringing Youth Voices Together

Minorities in STEM sponsored the book and served as a major organizational contributor, helping bring together young people whose stories, perspectives, and ideas appear in the publication. It is a separate publishing collaboration rather than an MIS-supported project.

Read about the publication ↗
View the official Minorities in STEM press page ↗