Ashwin Narayan

Scientist · Photographer · Writer

Biography

Portrait of Ashwin Narayan

Hello, I am Ashwin! I am a roboticist, amateur photographer and writer based in Singapore. I work as a Research Fellow in the Biorobotics Lab at NUS, building and testing rehabilitation and industrial exoskeletons. My expertise spans exoskeleton control, machine learning, biomechanics, and embedded systems. I graduated with a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the National University of Singapore during which I worked on control of lower limb rehabilitation exoskeletons.

I like to take photographs in my spare time. I lean towards sunlit landscapes and interesting architecture and have a special interest in film photography. I am also an aspiring science fiction writer. Having been inspired by science fiction writers like Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke, I feel that the world needs more positive, inspiring stories that lay out a vision of where technology can take humanity.

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Recent Writing

Essays on robotics, AI, photography and whatever else I can’t stop thinking about

All writing

Explainers

A deep dive into topics that I’ve been reading intensely on

All explainers

Life & Leisure

Away from the desk

Rituals

On Coffee

A small island of peace: a few moments of calm thought before heading out into the chaos of the world.

By Ashwin Narayan ·

As a beverage, coffee smells incredible, keeps you awake and alert, and might even improve your working memory. But its chemical effects on the body are only a small part of why coffee means so much to me. For me, coffee is also a social beverage. Many of the most amazing conversations that I’ve had at work were over coffee. Brew a cup, grab a seat, and the ideas start flowing. If alcohol is a crowbar that pries open the doors of conversation, then coffee is a lock picking kit. With a bit of skill, it makes the doors spring open without any brute force.

But the most important aspect of coffee is the routine that it brought into my life over the last year. Nearly every morning, I grab a light breakfast from a nearby bakery, brew myself a pour-over from fresh, hand-ground beans before sitting down at my table to reflect on, write about and plan out the rest of my day. This routine played an essential part in keeping me sane during the last year and a half of on and off lockdowns and other restrictions caused by the global pandemic. To me, coffee represents a small island of peace—a few moments of calm thought before I head out into the chaos that is the world outside.

My taste in coffee has evolved over the years. Instant coffee was my go-to (blasphemy!) during the first year of my Ph.D. This changed after a friend brought back a sample of Vietnamese coffee and a Phin filter after his holiday in the country. Since then, I’ve experimented with several types of brewing apparatus, including many of the usual suspects like the Chemex, Moka Pot, and the Aeropress. Eventually, I found that the Hario V60 fit my life the best, and I built my morning routine around it.

Technique

Video

How I brew my morning V60.

Arts

From the sketchbook

Painting

The Rest of the Face

Watercolour ·

Earlier this year, my wife and I traveled to Penang where we visited the Peranakan Mansion. It was beautiful, and we bought a notebook with a charming cover design at the gift shop there. I was practicing my watercolor skills at the time, and the cover caught my eye. I wondered what the rest of the face looked like, so I tried to paint it.

Probably one of my better works in watercolor. I'm still new to the medium, and it's tricky to work with, but I really like the delicate colors and soft, fuzzy edges it lends itself to.

A notebook cover from Penang: a woman in a black kebaya embroidered with flowers, framed in an arch, her face cut off just above the lips.
The cover A notebook we bought at the Peranakan Mansion in Penang.
A watercolour portrait of a young woman with dark hair pinned up loosely, dark eyes and red lips, in a dark jacket over a pink floral collar.
The painting The rest of the face, imagined.
A digital painting in the style of Bob Ross: snowy mountains under a lavender sky, a dark pine forest, and a still lake with a small boat, framed by a tall pine and long grass.
After The Joy of Painting, season 14, episode 1. Adobe Sketchbook (iPad) ·

Painting

My Attempt at Following a Bob Ross Tutorial

By Ashwin Narayan ·

So after getting my new iPad, I tried to work through one of Bob Ross’s videos as soon as I could. Here’s my attempt at the one from season 14 episode 1.

In the spirit of Bob’s technique, I tried making up stories about the things in my painting.

In the picture

  1. 1. The boat. The empty boat was used by a traveler to cross the water body. But he didn’t secure it well enough. Now he has to walk for several hours to get home.

  2. 2. The sky diver. The sky diver opened his parachute too late (he did not account for the mountain’s elevation) and will probably crash into the mountain too fast. Hopefully, the snow will cushion his fall.

  3. 3. The hiker. There’s a lone hiker on the mountain. He misjudged the slope. Shortly after the moment captured by the painting, he slips and slides all the way down. Let’s hope he’s able to call for help using his radio.

  4. 4. The mountain goat. The mountain goat is enjoying the fabulous day.

  5. 5. The SR-71. An SR-71 Blackbird is flying by at greater than Mach 3. Its sonic boom might trigger a minor avalanche.

Also from the sketchbook