Mountains, coastlines, dusk, and whatever is on the other side of a window. Click any photo to see it larger.
Ritesh Botcha
Skin of the Moment. Moments I want to keep before they fade: what I saw, heard and smelled, and how it felt to be there. Words, photographs and the songs that go with them.
Writing
Senior engineer in hardware security architecture at Qualcomm, Bengaluru. I work on how the chips inside phones, cars and data centers keep themselves secure. Outside work I build civic tools for the city, trek, run, and take photographs.
Work
- Qualcomm Senior Engineer, Hardware Security2024 to now
Designing security for automotive, mobile, IoT and data center chips, with teams across five countries. Also built an internal AI assistant that architects, designers and program managers use to find answers across scattered docs.
- Qualcomm Engineer, Competitive Analysis2022 to 2024
Took apart rival chips and boot firmware to see how they protect keys, memory and video, and turned what I found into changes on the mobile roadmap.
- Global Shapers Bengaluru WEFnow
Impact Officer. AI-literacy workshops, the Meet Your Leader series, and a gig-worker safety initiative with civic authorities and NGOs.
- Yes to Access
Accessibility researcher. Audited public spaces around Bengaluru for people with disabilities.
Projects
Report a civic problem in English or Kannada; it finds the responsible official, tracks the deadline, and files an RTI when nobody answers. 100+ beta testers, picked for 10x Impact Labs Builders Week.
- Decoding Civic Governance Global Shapers
What the Greater Bengaluru Governance Act changes for citizens compared with the BBMP system it replaced. I work on the data and am building the project site.
- TrekTrybe↗Co-founder
A trek-planning app. Took it from idea to beta with a three-person team, including AI trip recommendations.
- Tricity Hustle Hackathon
Monopoly across Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi, with a live city economy and real-time multiplayer.
- Heat Islands
Where Bengaluru runs hottest, and why ground and air temperature disagree.
Education
- IIT Bombay 2017 to 2022
B.Tech + M.Tech, Electrical Engineering. Thesis on MRI image enhancement with Tata Memorial Hospital. Headed the Photography Club, which placed third at Inter-IIT.
Elsewhere
- Trekking
100+ trails across India, a few above 14,000 ft.
- Running
Early, before the traffic. Finished India's toughest 10K in an hour.
- Cinema
World films, and horror that is about something.
Get in touch
Happy to talk about chip security, civic tech in Bengaluru, photography, or a trek you are planning.