The Shiva-Vishnu Livermore Hindu Temple unveiled the Heritage Hall on Dec 17th. It features posters, paintings, and two all-new educational touchscreen video walls with software developed by Dhanvanth Rajesh (‘25).
Creating the Display
The video wall runs custom-built software. It allows devotees to select from hundreds of topics including Hindu Entertainment, Arts & Crafts, and Sanatana Dharma. Each topic is accompanied by a comprehensive curation of resources.
“It is important to display what Hindu culture really is, and I feel like there are a lot of misconceptions. I felt there should be a comprehensive place to learn these sorts of things,” said Rajesh.
The Heritage Hall serves as a new place in the temple to learn more about Hindu culture. Its modern design includes a multi-directional speaker to direct sound to those in front of the display.
“There were talks of being a mobile app or making an entire OS from scratch. It was a challenge to pick and choose which platforms we should run this on. A lot of challenges popped up on how to implement some features, and build it for the future so it can be maintained and grown,” said Rajesh.
On top of developing software with frontend development and data processing frameworks, Rajesh also does robotics engineering, such as setting up the displays to work in unison.
“We changed the layout of the software a lot and how we represent the over 800 categories. It was a logistical challenge to pick and choose what layouts would work out properly to make it more user-friendly,” said Rajesh.
Impact of the Project
The inauguration of the Heritage Hall was joined by many officials, including Livermore Mayor John Marchand and San Francisco India Consul General Srikar Reddy Koppula. They gave their commendations for the project.
“It was really exciting. First of all, it was a very eye-opening experience. It was very interesting to see how these things are held, especially with officials and functionaries. Meeting the mayor was a great experience; he was very supportive of the program and the effort,” said Rajesh.
These video walls are only the start of the Temple’s greater effort to educate people about Indian and Hindu culture with an emphasis on youth programs.
“I hope to continue working on this because we are planning to build many features. The best piece of advice is to do what resonates with you and solve problems that resonate with you. You learn a lot on the way,” said Rajesh.
