Written by Abhyudaya Gupta, 12th Grade
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I've always learned physics best by doing. It's a cycle of trying, failing, and trying again. That's what pushed me to build STEMXplore, a VR platform that recreates lab experiments inside a headset. Built using C#, it currently includes nine experiments across physics, chemistry, and computer science, aligned with the new Indian curriculum push towards experiential learning. Inside the simulation, students can titrate a solution, wire a circuit, or work through a coding exercise. The idea is simple: using technology to bring virtual labs to students.
Why a virtual lab?
Thousands of students don't get the same opportunity of a physical lab because their schools don't have the resources for one. And while some institutions do, these physical labs come with real limits. The equipment is expensive and chemicals would keep needing replenishing. Additionally, this one setup has to be shared across different classes, meaning some students only get to watch. These logistics cap how often an experiment gets repeated.
While I don't think VR is meant to replace a real lab, it does introduce the concept of experimentation in some capacity beyond the book. Moreover, what a virtual lab gives you is the room to fail. You can mess up an experiment five times in a row and just try again. There are no recurring costs, no risks, no waiting for your turn to get your hands on the equipment.
Such a practice environment matters in India where infrastructure is uneven. Given the updated NEP, which calls for learning by doing over rote instruction, this becomes a long-term, cost-effective solution to introduce scientific experimentation and its magic to students.
What comes next?
STEMXplore placed in the top 1.1% globally at the Blue Ocean Competition, which was a nice moment. But if I'm honest, the real test was whether schools would actually keep using it once the novelty wore off.
More than 25,000 students across 50+ schools are using it to run experiments. It has been adopted by the Extramarks Education Foundation and is in use at KIIT JEE, IKP Foundation, and Green Field School, with further rollouts underway at NGOs and under-resourced schools. Using their feedback, I keep building and iterating the software.
Around the same time, I have also worked on a physical "mystery room" called Mission Gaganyaan. It uses lights and touchscreens to pull students into astrophysics and is installed at a non-profit called Sapno ke Pankh. My school gave it an Innovator's Award in 2026.
Looking back, both projects come from the same place. To me, it's a giddy feeling when a student somewhere starts experimenting with the headset or the mystery room and starts getting genuinely curious. It's the same bug I caught messing around in the lab, and it's such an infectious feeling that I hope to spread it around. It's a small pointer toward what science education in India could feel like.