As you certainly know, Elektor Labs is a platform where you can share electronics projects and collaborate with other people. One of the top project posters at Elektor Labs is Bera who has already uploaded more than 30 projects. Several of his projects spotted there have been published in Elektor Magazine, f.i. this one.

Solutions for a Power Plant

The projects by Bera cover all sorts of applications, but the attentive reader will detect a pattern. Indeed, many of his projects have something to do with a power plant in India. They solve problems that he seems to encounter during his working hours. Several of Bera’s projects also address waste and natural resource management. Apparently, we are dealing with someone with an ecological edge.

Simple Means

His projects revolve around Arduino, Raspberry Pi and ESP32 which he uses to control cheap modules readily available online like LoRa transmitters and receivers, CAN bus drivers, and RTCs. With these rather simple means, he builds solutions to impressive problems.

Time for an Interview

Because of his productivity and the subjects of his work one cannot help to become intrigued by the person behind the Elektor Labs nickname Bera. Of course, we have communicated with him quite a lot through email, but this concerned mainly editorial stuff, and it is difficult to form a good idea about someone this way. And so, I decided to organize an interview.

Actually, I had planned to meet Bera in person in India, but somehow, I didn’t get a budget for that. Today the closest thing to meeting someone in person is doing this online with an audio & video connection, and so this is what I did. The recorded session was then uploaded to the Elektor YouTube channel for everyone to see.

So Who is Bera?

I highly recommend watching this video. You will discover a humble and very friendly person named Somnath Bera (so his Elektor Labs nickname is just his family name) of Bengali origins living in Vindhyanagar (Madhya Pradesh) and working as Additional General Manager at NTPC, India’s largest thermal power plant (55,000+ MW), where he is responsible for ash management. Don’t let his dog Daicha scare you, it is a friendly dog.

 

Maybe, after seeing this video, my boss will allow me to visit Bera in India after all.