About Dojo Foundations.
Life Dojo is a project of Dojo Foundations. We connect newcomers, international students, and early-career professionals in Alberta with mentors in their field who speak their language — for free.
Who we are
Dojo Foundations was founded by Sai Praneeth Chandra. Dojo Foundations is an Alberta non-profit in formation, founded by Sai Praneeth Chandra Balla. Life Dojo is its first mentorship platform..
“I graduated from the University of Alberta — qualified, and still rejected, again and again. The opportunities were right there: career fairs, events, people who could have opened doors. I showed up for the swag and the free pizza and missed what they were really for. I got lucky in the end — I networked my way into a manufacturing role I love, learning PLC programming, electrical design, and commissioning, and mentoring students along the way. But I watched brilliant, qualified friends end up in odd jobs simply because no one guided them. Life Dojo is the system I wish I'd had: handpicked mentors who show you the rooms you don't know exist and walk with you at every stage. If even one person finds their footing here — not to perform someone else's dream, but to feel genuinely happy and grateful to be in Canada, the way I do now — it will have been worth it.”
An engineer who couldn’t let go of an idea.
Sai Praneeth Chandra Balla is an Edmonton-based engineer with a keen interest in entrepreneurship. He came to Canada as an international student, graduated from the University of Alberta with a Master’s in Electrical and Computer Engineering, and now works in automation and applied research at the university’s Modular Construction Research Group — while deepening his entrepreneurship training through Simon Fraser University’s Science & Technology Commercialization program.
The idea behind Dojo has been with him since grade 11: a place where everything starts. The logo — a triangle within a triangle, whose lines extend outward into ever-larger triangles — carries the belief at the heart of it all:
Small beginnings that expand into bigger things.
He built Life Dojo after living the problem himself. People move to Edmonton skilled, educated, and motivated — and hit a wall. Not because they can’t do the work, but because they don’t know anyone. Information is everywhere; information without someone to interpret it is just noise. What people need is one honest conversation with someone who has already figured it out in their field.
Not a course. Not a chatbot. A real person.
Selected publications +−
- Chandra Balla, S. P., Touil, D. E., and Al-Hussein, M. “Real-time uncalibrated 3D vision for steel framing manufacturing: A smartphone-based approach to construction quality control.” Accepted for publication in Proceedings, 21st International Conference on Computing in Civil and Building Engineering (ICCCBE 2026), Taipei, Taiwan, March 23–26, 2026.
- Nader, G., Touil, D. E., Balla, S. P. C., Bouferguene, A., Al-Hussein, M., and AbouRizk, S. “Real-time quality control for offsite LGS frames manufacturing using vision-based deep learning.” Accepted for publication in Proceedings, 43rd International Symposium on Automation and Robotics in Construction (ISARC 2026), Singapore, June 22–26, 2026.
Life Dojo completed Mentor Canada’s Principles of Quality Mentoring Self-Assessment and took part in a capacity-building session with Mentor Canada in July 2026. Their review recognized Life Dojo’s strengths in cultural responsiveness — as a newcomer-founded program — its strategic foundation of a theory of change and logic model, and its comprehensive participant-safety policies. We’re using their recommendations to keep raising the bar on mentor screening, participant training, and relationship support.
Newcomer-founded, sharing the identities and lived experience of the people we serve.
A theory of change and logic model guiding evaluation and improvement.
Comprehensive code of conduct, confidentiality, privacy, and safety policies.
Strengths identified in Mentor Canada’s review of Life Dojo.
Please note: this is not an official verification, certification, accreditation, endorsement, or formal guidance from Mentor Canada, and does not represent an official Mentor Canada position. It simply reflects a voluntary self-assessment and capacity-building conversation we took part in to help strengthen our program.
The Alberta pilot
We are starting with a focused, founder-led pilot in Alberta: a small network of reviewed senseis and mentees across several languages, so we can prove safe, useful mentorship before we grow.
Contact
General questions and support: [email protected]
Safety concerns: [email protected] or see Report a concern.