Introduction

I'm John Chai, CTO of PolyMate and 3rd year student at SUTD. I build hardware, software and everything in between. Current research interests are on AI in manufacturing and intent-aware manufacturing. This personal website is for me to have a personal repository of thoughts for sharing and also document interesting projects. Singaporean, but currently in the SF Bay Area (until August 2026). Do reach out if you're keen to collaborate or talk!

What I do

I have been deeply obsessed with making for as long as I remember. As a child, I proudly declared that I wanted to be a construction worker, much to the confusion of my parents. The idea of having built something that people enjoy, or even rely on, whether it be a building a product or an app has driven me to try making all kinds of things. I've made drawings, circuits, cosplay props, 3D printers, furniture, robots, musical arrangements, satellites, and now a company dedicated to letting others make too. I'm here to build ways for people to create, to translate intent and need into something real, valuable and wonderful.

Why I do it

I believe that people are fundamentally creative. Part of the essential human experience is joy derived from having made something, whether it be an sculpture, a website or a plate of food. Human creativity, beyond being an act, is a need that is drastically underserved by industrial society. I believe in empowering individuals in creation, realizing needs at scales far smaller than industrial, for the abundance brought by technology should be shared. There lies so much more value in the sum of human experience both for the individual and collective that is gated behind scalability and realization. I believe the future of manufacturing scaling is not volume but value.

Even so, I only can make because I was given countless opportunities to. I have been blessed to cross paths with and befriend many insanely driven, incredibly kind and impossibly brilliant individuals. As I have been given, so I do my best to give in turn. I believe that having been empowered brings also a duty to empower others, and whether in teaching, building or inspiring I hope I can do the same.