He Built a Robot at 8, Went to MIT at 14 & Now Designs the World’s Most Advanced Filterless Air Purifier

27 October 2025

Growing up with asthma in Mumbai, Angad Daryani's family had to flee the city's toxic winters. His personal struggle became a national mission: to build the world's most advanced filterless air purifier.

A born inventor, he built a robot at 8 and a 3D printer at 13. He saw problems not as obstacles, but as puzzles waiting to be solved.

Unlike most kids his age, Angad couldn’t settle for rote learning. So, at 14, he dropped out, with his parents hiring a tutor to rebuild the basics — while he chased far bigger experiments.

He boldly emailed an MIT professor asking, "Why not bring someone from India?" The professor replied, leading to two years of collaborative work on life-changing tech.

After MIT, Angad studied electrical engineering at Georgia Tech. Here, he asked himself: How do we fix the air we breathe?

So in 2017, he started building air purifiers in his apartment. His first prototype? A paint bucket with a motor. Every week, he carried it two miles to the campus makerspace to refine the design.

He didn’t want luxury indoor purifiers. His mission was bigger: factories, schools, and public spaces. Clean air for everyone, without filters, without recurring costs — because those who need it most can’t afford fancy devices.

He named his project Praan — meaning life. Volunteers joined from all over: students with experience at Apple, Tesla, and SpaceX. Together, they built, tested, and failed — in terraces, public parks, and even parking lots.

Their breakthrough? A filterless system that charges particles, traps them, and releases pure air. It cleans large spaces — factories, schools — in minutes, with near-zero maintenance. And the collected residue can be reused as raw material in the production process.

Today, Praan's MK-II model tackles extreme pollution (AQI up to 40,000!). And it's truly Made in India, with over 90% of materials sourced locally.

Backed by Microsoft and Marico Foundation, Praan is scaling fast. Their vision: clean air accessible to all, powered by hardware and AI, right here in India.