Student Spotlight: Hacking Through 100 Days of IoT with Kritish Mohapatra

Building in public is one of the hardest disciplines to maintain, especially as a student. Recently, I connected with Kritish Mohapatra, a 3rd-year Electrical Engineering student who is currently deep in the trenches of a massive undertaking: 100 Days of 100 IoT Projects.

While many of us struggle to keep a GitHub streak alive for a week, Kritish has been cranking out documented, functional hardware projects that range from simple LED toggles to cloud-connected detection systems.

Why This Repo Caught My Eye

What I love about this collection is the platform agility. Kritish isn’t just an "Arduino guy" or a "Pi person." He’s jumping between:

• ESP32 & ESP8266: The go-to for WiFi-enabled projects.
• Raspberry Pi Pico / Pico 2 W: Pushing the limits of MicroPython on the new silicon.
• XIAO ESP32-S3: Exploring tiny form factors for wearable or compact tech.

Project Deep Dives

To give you a feel for the repo, I’ve picked a day that showcase the range of what he’s building.

Day 57: ESP-NOW Smart Relay & Sensor (ESP8266/ESP32 + ESP-NOW + MicroPython)

A bidirectional ESP-NOW based smart relay and sensor system where a sender control panel toggles relays on a receiver and receives real-time DHT temperature and humidity data displayed on an OLED

• The Cool Factor: It creates a private, long-range communication network between devices without needing a WiFi router or an internet connection.
• The Tech: It utilizes ESP-NOW for low-latency triggers and MicroPython to handle the logic across multiple GPIO pins and I2C displays.
• Why it Matters: It demonstrates how to build a closed-loop ecosystem. It’s not just sending a command into the void; the hardware "talks back" with environmental data, closing the loop between action and feedback.

The Takeaway

What Kritish is doing here is creating a living roadmap. If you’ve ever wanted to get into hardware but felt overwhelmed by where to start, this repo is essentially a 100-step ladder.

He’s proving that you don't need a massive lab to build impressive things, you just need a few microcontrollers, a breadboard, and the discipline to show up every day.

Support a Fellow Dev

Kritish is currently in his third year and looking to connect with the wider IoT and Embedded community.

• Star the Repo: 100_Days_100_IoT_Projects
• Follow the Journey: Follow Kritish on Bluesky.