Komal Verma

I have always been curious about how things work. During my Electronics and Communication Engineering journey, that curiosity started with circuits, components, signals, and microcontrollers. Later, it slowly expanded toward embedded systems, IoT, PCB design, and now Artificial Intelligence. I recently completed my B.Tech in Electronics and Communication Engineering, and I decided to start writing on Hashnode to document what I am learning and building. This is my first article, so instead of starting with a complicated technical tutorial, I wanted to start with my journey. ## Starting with Electronics Electronics was the foundation of my engineering journey. During college, I studied subjects such as analog and digital electronics, communication systems, signals and systems, microprocessors and microcontrollers, VLSI, and embedded systems. But there was always a difference between understanding something from a textbook and actually making it work. A circuit can look completely correct on paper and still not work when you build it. That's where practical projects became important for me. I started experimenting with microcontrollers such as **Arduino, 8051, ESP8266, and ESP32**, along with different sensors and electronic components. Every project came with its own problems. Sometimes the code was wrong. Sometimes the wiring was wrong. Sometimes the sensor didn't behave as expected. And sometimes I had no idea what was actually causing the problem. 😅 But troubleshooting these issues taught me more than simply getting a project to work. It taught me how to approach a problem. --- ## Learning by Building Projects One project I worked on was an **IoT-based health monitoring system** using an ESP8266 and sensors for monitoring parameters such as heart rate and SpO₂. Working on this project gave me experience with sensor interfacing, microcontrollers, communication between components, and sending data to an IoT platform. It also showed me that a project is not just about connecting components together. You have to think about the complete system. **Sensor → Microcontroller → Data → Communication → User** Every part has to work properly for the final system to be useful. I also worked on smaller embedded and electronics projects, including microcontroller-based systems and sensor-based prototypes. These projects helped me become more comfortable with both hardware and software. --- Discovering PCB Design Another area that caught my interest was **PCB design**. I started using **KiCad** to design electronic circuits and PCBs. Initially, PCB design seemed mostly like drawing connections between components. But as I worked with it, I realized that there is much more to it. Component placement, routing, connections, design checking, and thinking about how the final board will actually be built all matter. There is something satisfying about seeing an idea move through different stages: **Idea → Circuit → PCB → Hardware → Working System** That process made me more interested in hardware development. --- Then AI Entered the Picture While electronics remained my core background, I started exploring Artificial Intelligence and Generative AI. Initially, AI felt like a completely different world from electronics. But I became curious about what could happen when intelligent software is combined with real-world systems. So I started experimenting. I explored AI tools, AI agents, and different ways of using AI to build practical applications. One of my recent projects was a **CymbalMart Shopping Agent**, which I built as part of the Google Cloud Gen AI Academy. The project explored how an AI assistant could understand requirements such as the type of event, number of guests, dietary constraints, and budget, and then create a personalized shopping plan. I also experimented with conversational and voice-based AI applications. These projects changed the way I looked at AI. I stopped seeing it only as a subject that I needed to learn. I started seeing it as a **tool for building things. --- What I Have Learned So Far The biggest lesson I have learned from these experiences is simple: > **Learning by building is different from learning only by studying.** When I study a concept, I may feel that I understand it. But when I try to implement it, I quickly discover what I actually know. Projects have taught me to: * break a big problem into smaller problems * search and learn when I get stuck * test ideas instead of assuming they will work * debug patiently * learn from mistakes * improve a project step by step I have also realized that I don't need to understand everything before starting a project. Sometimes I used to collect too much information before making a decision because I wanted to understand everything first. But building has taught me something different: **Start with what you know, identify what you don't know, and learn what you need along the way.** I am still working on this. --- ## Where Electronics and AI Meet This is probably the part of technology that interests me the most right now. My background is in Electronics and Communication Engineering, but I don't want to limit myself to only one area. I am interested in exploring the intersection of: **Embedded Systems + IoT + AI + Intelligent Technologies** Sensors can collect information. Embedded systems can process it. Communication technologies can move the data. And AI can potentially help us understand that data and make systems more intelligent. There are many possibilities here, and I am still exploring which direction I want to take more deeply. That's one of the reasons I want to keep building. --- ## Why I Started Writing on Hashnode I often learn something new and then move on to the next topic. But writing makes me stop and organize what I actually learned. It also forces me to explain a concept instead of just recognizing it. That's why I want to use Hashnode as a place to document my learning. I don't want every article to be a perfect tutorial written by an expert. Some articles may be about a project I built. Some may explain something I recently learned. Some may be about a problem I faced while building something. And some may simply be about an interesting technology I am exploring. I want this blog to reflect the actual process of learning—not just the final result. --- What Comes Next? I am still figuring out exactly where this journey will take me. For now, I want to continue exploring: * Embedded Systems * Arduino, ESP8266 and ESP32 * PCB Design with KiCad * IoT and sensor-based systems * Generative AI and AI agents * Hardware-software integration * Intelligent and connected systems I don't expect to become an expert in everything. Instead, I want to keep learning one project at a time. --- Final Thoughts My journey started with electronics. Then came embedded systems, sensors, PCB design, and IoT. Now I am exploring AI and trying to understand how these different technologies can work together. There is still a lot I don't know. And honestly, sometimes the amount of things to learn feels overwhelming. But I have started to understand that **I don't need to know everything before I start.** I just need to start. Build something. Break something. Understand why it broke. Fix it. And build again. So, this is my first step on Hashnode. I hope to use this space to share what I learn, what I build, the problems I face, and the lessons I pick up along the way. Let's see where this journey takes me. 🚀 --- Thanks for reading! If you're also learning by building, I'd love to know what you're currently working on. More technical experiments and project stories coming soon.

Learning • Building • Growing