Call for Devrooms for IndiaFOSS 2026

IndiaFOSS Conference
10

Building, Hacking, Shipping: Open Hardware for the Next Generation

Devroom Managers

  • Balu Babu
  • Amit
  • Srinivasan
  • Kailash

We are members of the Indian open hardware ecosystem, working across community building, PCB manufacturing, electronics development, and hardware product development.

Amit and I are core members of Absurd Industries, an open hardware community in Bangalore dedicated to getting more people to build things. Since 2023, we’ve been holding monthly maker meetups, bringing together hardware engineers, students, hobbyists, artists, tinkerers, and first-time builders.

We’ve hosted hands-on sessions, hardware demos, community project showcases, open hardware discussions, and collaborative builds. Over time, we’ve had people building everything from indie hardware kits and PCB projects to open Linux handhelds, robotics, embedded systems, and experimental hardware.

Amit and I also co-managed the Open Hardware Devroom at IndiaFOSS 2025, the first-ever devroom edition of the conference. We ran the devroom with six talks selected through an open, community-driven voting process. We built the voting platform and published the methodology and results openly after the event.

Srinivasan, founder of PCB Cupid, and Kailash, founder of ampere.works, bring additional experience from the Indian hardware ecosystem, including PCB manufacturing, electronics development, community building, and helping makers move from prototypes to real products.

At our core, we believe in lowering the barrier to open hardware. We want more people to not only learn about hardware, but to actually build, modify, document, publish, and ship it.

Proof of Feasibility

We believe the Open Hardware Devroom can easily sustain a strong session because we have already done it once.

At IndiaFOSS 2025, Amit and I ran a full Open Hardware Devroom with six talks selected through an open and transparent process. The entire devroom was recorded and published, making the talks accessible to the wider community after the conference.

We also built and ran an open voting system where the community could browse proposals and vote for the talks they wanted to see. The process collected 41 votes, with verified-email filtering to maintain legitimacy. The full methodology and results were published in a public writeup.

This proved two important things:

  1. There is a real audience for open hardware at IndiaFOSS.
  2. The community is willing to actively participate in shaping the programme.

Since IndiaFOSS 2025, the ecosystem has only grown stronger.

At Absurd Industries, we’ve continued running monthly meetups in Bangalore, with sustained attendance and engagement from makers, students, engineers, and hobbyists. Our events have consistently appeared on Luma’s Bengaluru homepage, which reflects the visibility and momentum the community has built over the past year.

We also co-hosted an Open Hardware Hackathon with PCB Cupid, bringing together makers for hands-on building, prototyping, and collaboration.

The broader Indian open hardware ecosystem has also seen major progress. Mecha Comet, an open, modular Linux handheld computer, launched on Kickstarter and raised $1.19 million USD from 3,346 backers, far exceeding its $50,000 goal. The hardware is released under the CERN-OHL-S-2.0 license. To us, this is strong proof that open hardware is no longer just a niche technical interest. It has real community, technical, and market momentum.

We are also seeing a new generation of young builders emerge. Makers from Whybit are building indie hardware kits and making hardware more approachable for students and beginners. These are exactly the kinds of builders we want to bring into the devroom this year.

Our community is not just large. It is active, hands-on, and prolific. Between Absurd Industries, PCB Cupid, ampere.works, Mecha, Whybit, and the broader Indian maker ecosystem, we are confident that a CFP will generate strong submissions. As we did last year, we will also personally reach out to makers working on interesting projects and encourage them to present their work.

Short Introduction & Motivation

Open-source hardware is a vital but still underrepresented part of the FOSS ecosystem. While open-source software has become mainstream, open hardware still faces unique challenges around cost, manufacturing, sourcing parts, documentation, licensing, testing, repairability, and distribution.

At the same time, open hardware in India is at an exciting point. We are seeing more students design their first PCBs, more indie makers ship kits, more collectives form around building things, and more ambitious open hardware products reach global audiences.

Last year, the Open Hardware Devroom proved that there is a strong audience for this space at IndiaFOSS. This year, we want to shift the focus toward the next generation of builders.

The Open Hardware Devroom aims to bring together makers, hardware engineers, students, researchers, educators, kit builders, collectives, and first-time hackers working in open-source electronics, embedded systems, DIY hardware, open manufacturing, and community-driven hardware development.

Through this devroom, we hope to:

  • Showcase real-world open hardware projects being built in India and beyond.
  • Give young makers, students, and first-time builders a platform to present their work.
  • Discuss the practical challenges of building and shipping hardware openly.
  • Share knowledge around PCB design, embedded systems, fabrication, manufacturing, licensing, and documentation.
  • Strengthen the Indian open hardware community through collaboration and networking.
  • Help the next open hardware project find its first users, collaborators, or contributors.

The goal is simple: make the devroom a place where people leave thinking, “I can build something too.”

Number of Volunteers Requested

Proposal Reviewers:
Public/community-driven review through open voting. The devroom managers will review the final shortlist and submit the proposals selected through the community process.

Logistics Volunteers:
4 volunteers to assist with speaker coordination, introductions, AV/streaming support, and schedule management on the day of the event.

Devroom managers Balu, Amit, Srinivasan, and Kailash will also help with reviews and logistics.

Call for Proposals

Scope of Talks

We invite proposals that focus on open-source hardware development, community-driven innovation, hands-on making, and real-world hardware projects.

Suggested topics include, but are not limited to:

  • DIY and Maker Projects: Personal and community-driven open hardware builds, such as kits, gadgets, wearables, tools, art installations, robotics, assistive devices, or experimental electronics.

  • Young Makers and First-Time Builders: Talks from students, young hackers, and first-time speakers about their first PCB, first kit, first hardware project, first failure, or first shipped build.

  • Open-Source PCB Design and Tools: Workflows, lessons, tips, and war stories using KiCad, EasyEDA, LibrePCB, and other PCB design tools.

  • Embedded Systems and Microcontrollers: Projects and learnings around Arduino, ESP32, STM32, RP2040, Zephyr, FreeRTOS, CircuitPython, MicroPython, and other embedded platforms.

  • Open-Source Silicon and FPGAs: RISC-V, open ASICs, FPGA toolchains, HDL workflows, verification, and open silicon development.

  • From Prototype to Product: The journey from breadboard to PCB, from prototype to kit, and from small-batch manufacturing to Kickstarter or commercial hardware.

  • Hardware Security and Trust: Transparency, verifiability, secure design, supply-chain trust, and security practices in open hardware.

  • Community-Driven Hardware Development: How to build and sustain maker communities, hardware collectives, student groups, hackerspaces, and guilds.

  • Manufacturing, Supply Chains, and Documentation: Lessons from sourcing parts, working with manufacturers, writing documentation, testing boards, managing revisions, and supporting users.

  • Cross-Disciplinary Open Hardware: Open hardware applied to education, agriculture, accessibility, sustainability, art, music, science, civic technology, environmental monitoring, or any other domain.

We welcome technical talks, project showcases, practical demos, and fireside-style discussions.

Preferred talk formats:

Format Duration
Lightning Talk 10 min + 5 min Q&A
Standard Session 20 min + 5 min Q&A
Fireside Chat / Demo 30 min + 5 min Q&A

Selection Process

As with IndiaFOSS 2025, we plan to use an open community voting system for talk selection.

The community will be able to browse submissions and vote for the talks they want to see. Votes will be filtered using verified-email checks to reduce spam and maintain legitimacy. The final selection will be based on community votes, with the methodology published transparently.

We believe the community should have a visible role in curating its own programme, rather than leaving the entire process behind closed doors.

References

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