Atlanta Student Builds Microsoft-Backed Carbon Platform Headed to New Delhi Summit

Rhythm Bazari at the Minorities in STEM booth at SkillsUSA Nationals , backed by partners including Microsoft, KR3, FIRST, MIT App Inventor, and SkillsUSA.

i-Pledge, built from scratch by Woodward Academy student Rhythm Bazari, will be presented at the Global Sustainability Summit at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi.

COLLEGE PARK, GA, UNITED STATES, August 30, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The i-Pledge Carbon Impact Platform, built from scratch by Atlanta high school student Rhythm Bazari and one collaborator, will be presented at the Global Sustainability Summit (GSS) 2026 at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi. Bazari, a student at Woodward Academy and founder of the free youth-led nonprofit Minorities in STEM (MIS), was lead technical builder on the project, wrote the platform's entire frontend, and manages the build.

i-Pledge is the technology behind the "I Pledge: Reduce Your Own Carbon Footprint" global campaign run by the Indian Institute of Sustainable Development and its Carbon Minus India initiative (IISD-CMI), a New Delhi public policy think tank. Microsoft is listed by the summit organizers as the campaign's Technology Partner. The platform was developed through Microsoft's corporate social responsibility programs.

The campaign asks participants to commit to changes across 11 everyday lifestyle habits and to report their actions with quantifiable data. i-Pledge turns those individual commitments into measurable numbers, using a carbon footprint methodology recommended by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). At the end of the campaign, IISD-CMI intends to publish the total emissions reduced across all participants. Microsoft has projected the campaign could reach 5 million+ users. The product will be launching this early September.

"Most climate tools tell you what your footprint is and stop there," said Bazari. "The point of i-Pledge is the second half. You make a commitment, you log what you actually did, and the number that comes out at the end belongs to everyone who participated."

A summit supported by the Indian government.

GSS 2026 is the annual flagship event of IISD-CMI, an independent not-for-profit think tank, held at Vigyan Bhawan, the Government of India's principal conference venue in New Delhi. The GSS series was officially launched by Union Cabinet Minister of Culture and Tourism Shri Gajendra Singh Shekhawat. Organizers list the Vice President of India, Shri C. P. Radhakrishnan, as chief guest, and name multiple Government of India ministries among the summit's supporting partners, including the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and NITI Aayog. Melanie Nakagawa, Chief Sustainability Officer of Microsoft, appears on the invited speaker roster.

From a threatened robotics program to a global network

MIS began after the robotics program at Bazari's high school faced budget cuts. Rather than accept the loss, he organized to keep it running, then extended the approach outward: find students who want STEM access, give them the materials to build a program themselves, and let them run it.

Every MIS program is free. Chapters are founded and led by students in their own schools and communities, drawing on shared curriculum, mentorship, and project resources, and chapter leaders receive internship placements through KR3 Information Systems. MIS has no paid staff. Its 300+ volunteers are teenagers and young adults who run the chapters and build the programs themselves.

Alongside the carbon platform, the MIS network includes Avants AI, a free resume analyzer Bazari built at KR3 Information Systems and shared within Microsoft employee networks. Avants AI is now used by thousands of users around the world to acquire career-ready skills and get hired.

About Minorities in STEM

Minorities in STEM is a free, youth-led nonprofit expanding access to science, technology, engineering, and math education worldwide. Founded in 2024 at Woodward Academy in Atlanta, MIS operates 40+ chapters run entirely by student volunteers and has reached 300,000+ people across 50+ countries. Partners include Microsoft, FIRST Robotics, SkillsUSA, MIT App Inventor, and Horizons Atlanta. Learn more at minoritiesinstem.org.

About Avants AI

Avants AI has a community and startup edition where over 2,000 users obtain career-ready skills like talking in an interview and analyzing their overall profile when applying to jobs.

About the i-Pledge Carbon Impact Platform

i-Pledge is the carbon tracking and reporting platform behind IISD-CMI's "I Pledge: Reduce Your Own Carbon Footprint" global campaign, with Microsoft as named Technology Partner. It allows individuals to pledge lifestyle changes across 11 habit categories, log their actions, and see aggregate emissions reductions calculated against UNFCCC-recommended methodology.

Rhythm Bazari
Minorities in STEM
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