Ambika Grover: Indian American teen wins big for her research on ischemic stroke
Compiled by: Team GI Youth
(April 2, 2023) 17-year-old Indian American Ambika Grover was quite nervous as she sat along with the other 39 finalists at the 2023 Regeneron Science Talent Search award ceremony. The Greenwich High senior spent a week in Washington DC with other students presenting their projects to judges at the most prestigious science and mathematics competition for high school seniors in the US. Though she didn’t expect to win, she ended up taking sixth place for her project about ischemic strokes. “When I heard my name, I was so excited,” the teenager said, who brought home $82,000, with $80,000 coming from her sixth-place win and $2,000 from being selected as a scholar. And now, the Riverside resident wants to use the prize money towards her future college tuition fee.
Ambika Grover at Regeneron Science Talent Search
The teenager reveals a startling number that suffers from the effects of a stroke each year – 15 million – and out of which, there is a five-and-a-half-million-person mortality rate. In this, ischemic strokes (wherein an artery becomes partially or fully blocked due to a blood clot) account for 87 percent of all strokes. And her research lies in this area as currently, tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) is used to treat ischemic stroke, but one of its shortcomings include the risk of bleeding elsewhere and the inability to stop the forming of new clots. That’s when Ambika decided to dive deep into the research and came up with a probable solution.
She has engineered a targeted therapy for patients of ischemic stroke, which is caused by blood clots that deprive the brain of oxygen, for the medicine and health project. She has developed an injectable layered microbubble designed to target and break up blood clots and prevent them from reforming. She believes this can be used to restore the flow of oxygen-carrying blood to the brains of ischemic stroke victims.
For the same, the high schooler used magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles coated with a layer of anti-coagulant to prevent more clots from forming and a layer of tPA to break up the clot. “Ambika’s therapeutic innovation has the potential to make a real difference in how we treat ischemic strokes; we are encouraged by her results and eager to see how her research advances the field,” said Maya Ajmera, president and chief executive office of the Society for Science and Executive Science News.
The Indian American teenager, who sees herself conducting cardiovascular disease research someday, has already applied for a patent for her microbubble. She is keen to minor in economics in college and explore the intersectionality of economics and technology.
Ambika is also the president of the Girls Who Code Club and is one of 12 debaters selected from 140,000 to compete internationally with the USA Debate Team.
She is currently gearing up for an internship at Greenwich Hospital in May, where she will be working with someone who specialises in strokes. She also hopes to continue with her research in college and take it to the next level – using real-life applications. “I’m hoping to really learn more about how it applies to patients and the challenges we face deciding what actions we take when someone has an ischemic stroke and I want to use that knowledge to help me take this research further,” the Global Indian said.
(November 8, 2023) Monika Chandolu, a resident of Movva village in Krishna district in Vijayawada, got an impressive 95.4 percent in her 12th grade and qualified for the JEE Mains exam. She is confident of clearing her JEE advanced test and getting admission into a top institute. This wouldn't have been possible without the help of 16-year-old Greeshma Davu, an Indian American living in the suburb of Washington DC, who is helping many deserving students like Monika by providing financial assistance for their education. Greeshma is on a mission to empower underprivileged girls and is doing everything possible to help the girls get the right access to education, and it's her parents who are helping her in the process. She is assisting Monika in her pursuit of engineering education using Tata's Palleseva organization, which is located in Kaza village within the same mandal. [caption id="attachment_33957" align="aligncenter" width="525"] Greeshma Davu[/caption] "During a visit to my grandparent's hometown in India, I have learned about the dire consequences of inadequate education. Witnessing the lack of access to basic rights for women, I became motivated to make a difference through charity," she told a daily. While her parents have been the wind beneath her
nsequences of inadequate education. Witnessing the lack of access to basic rights for women, I became motivated to make a difference through charity," she told a daily.
While her parents have been the wind beneath her wings, she has been working hard to provide financial help to girls like Monika by working at Kumon learning centers, as well as working as an intern at the University of Virginia Neuro Science Lab. The concept of aiding the underprivileged by offering education took shape during her visit to India, where she saw distressing situations in which women encountered hardships because of their limited access to education.
In addition to her commitment to academics and sports, the teenager is also actively involved in charitable work through her non-profit organization, 'Care 4 Needy,' which extends its assistance to both Indian and American communities. 'Care 4 Needy' was founded in January 2022, with the initiative stemming from the vision of Greeshma's mother and founder, Srilatha Tata, along with her maternal uncle, Pavan Kumar Tata. Greeshma and her uncle, Anil Kumar Tata, serve as co-founders of the organisation.
This dual-pronged dedication to education and community service exemplifies their family's commitment to making a positive impact both locally and abroad through 'Care 4 Needy.'
Apart from charitable work, Greeshma has demonstrated her academic prowess by achieving the sixth position in the State Technology Student Association (TSA) conference, showcasing her excellence in this field. Simultaneously, she is passionate about sports and has earned a spot on the Junior Varsity Volleyball team at Rockridge High School, her former educational institution.
Furthermore, Greeshma is not only excelling in her studies and sports but also showing her commitment to social causes. Her goal is to provide sanitary napkins to women and teenagers in rural areas, and she has already managed to raise an impressive $20,000 in funds to support this vital cause. Her dedication to both academic and humanitarian pursuits is truly inspiring.
"Working at the National Institute of Health to support those suffering from lupus disease, Greeshma achieved recognition in the State Technology Student Association. With the guidance of her mentors Ravi Davu and Dr Prakash Bethapudi, she also published research on brain tumour identification," Greeshma's mother added.
(27 January, 2022) Megha Rao’s poetry is dark, fierce, rabid and explosive. It is a truth-teller - raw and real. Her ferocious style is a rarity for poets of her generation. “I like to write about the honesty of wounds,” insists the Indian poetess and visual artist, who has taken the literary world by storm with her spoken word poetry. Breaking new ground, Megha’s latest offering Teething is a story in verse about three children growing up in Kerala. It is creating waves across the globe, drawing much appreciation. “The core and recurring theme of Teething (published by Harper Collins) is innocence, which most lose along the way as we stumble into adulthood. It’s something I’m still looking for,” smiles Indian poetess Megha Rao, speaking exclusively to Global Indian. [caption id="attachment_10040" align="alignnone" width="1536"] Indian poetess and podcaster Megha Rao[/caption] Teething’s lasting impact can be judged from the high praise from acclaimed writer and politician Dr Shashi Tharoor, film actor Naseeruddin Shah, author Manu S Pillai and poet Jerry Pinto. While Shashi Tharoor wrote, “Both fluent and complex, searing and plangent, the poems in Megha Rao’s Teething reveal a remarkable sensibility allied to a rare talent for the language. This is a stunning,
Teething’s lasting impact can be judged from the high praise from acclaimed writer and politician Dr Shashi Tharoor, film actor Naseeruddin Shah, author Manu S Pillai and poet Jerry Pinto.
While Shashi Tharoor wrote, “Both fluent and complex, searing and plangent, the poems in Megha Rao’s Teething reveal a remarkable sensibility allied to a rare talent for the language. This is a stunning, moving collection. I look forward to many more!,” actor Naseeruddin Shah was also awed by her verse, “If poetry is a metaphorical description of the mundane then Megha Rao is certainly not short of metaphors. These deeply-felt personal poems sometimes have the touch of a butterfly’s wings and sometimes hit the reader like a sledgehammer.”
A verse to mull over
Author of three books, the Indian poetess' fiery stage performances often leave the audience wanting more. “Teething started with its last poem, Spoonerism - a conversation a family has while having dinner, and something about the characters made me realise there was more to tell, more individual stories to share - hidden moments and secrets, emotions that begged to come tumbling out,” informs Megha, a postgraduate in English Literature from the University of Nottingham, United Kingdom. She did BA English from Madras Christian College (Chennai).
[caption id="attachment_10039" align="alignnone" width="1080"] Megha Rao performs at an event[/caption]
Elaborating on Teething, the Indian poetess says she began by working backwards. “I know it sounds strange, but the first poem and the prologue of Teething were the last two pieces I wrote, but I trusted the process,” says Megha, who was lauded for her brew of metaphors and surrealism.
Born in Trivandrum in December 1995, Megha started writing as a six-year-old. “It was a comic book I wrote for the first time. It was about a toy I had - a little fluffy dog,” says the 26-year-old Indian poetess, who as a child was always creative. “My mind was always up to something strange and ridiculous,” she quips. While creative writing came to her early, Megha loved painting, and one of her hobbies was to collect stamps. She first entered the public eye when her poem I’m in Love With This World gained traction online.
The Indian poetess' works have been featured on Rollingstone India, UnErase, Terribly Tiny Tales, Why Indian Men Rape, Homegrown, Feminism in India, Kommune, etc. The confessional poet and surrealist artist has already written three books - It Will Always Be You (2015), A Crazy Kind of Love (2016) — both light-hearted romantic fiction, and Music to Flame Lilies (2019), best known for magic realism. She is currently working on a storytelling module focussed on girl’s education in Kenya, Pakistan, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Gautemala and some other countries alongside a non-profit.
Her poetry podcast trended # 1 on Spotify India, and earned her many admirers. “Poems To Calm Down To (podcast) was a bit of an anomaly from my usual writing style. It’s themes were beauty, hope, tenderness, simplicity, and all the lovely, light-bearing things in life,” informs the poet. It was a series of slow, steady and patient poems, unlike her other works. “It was a real joy creating it, and I’ll always have a soft spot for it. Although, I have to admit, I was so surprised when it rose to #1 on trending podcasts Spotify, and was among the top 10 podcasts in India,” says the Indian poetess, whose followers find the podcast calming, and relatable. She is now working on a book about grief.
“I always write under the impression that every experience I talk about is completely mine alone, but it’s things like these that show me I’m not alone. It’s a paradox, an individual yet collective experience,” explains the Indian poetess, who currently shuttles between Mumbai and Kerala. Her podcast explores the personal growth journey of a young poet who tries to understand life on her own terms and discovers the beauty of forgiveness, maturity and acceptance. Her poems, quite unabashed in nature, derive inspiration from Sylvia Plath and Frida Kahlo.
Taking refuge in words
“Looking back, there was no other way. It (poetry) was my natural habitat, my safe space,” smiles Megha, who spent her childhood in Singapore before returning to Kerala when she was 10. Her father is the vice principal of an engineering college. The family is originally from Mangalore but her ancestors moved to Kerala in search of work long ago.
The first time she performed on a big stage was mesmerising. The fiery poet on stage is a soft-spoken person, surprisingly. “There were all these lights, faces and smiles and it was twilight, and I had eight minutes of magic - standing there screaming my poem,” recalls the Indian poetess, of her first performance. “It was overwhelming - such a whirlwind. I just remember finding my way to the end and there were all these tents - I lay on the grass, staring at the stars and wondering if this is what it meant to be so gloriously alive,” says Megha, rather poetically.
Finding courage amidst brickbats
Citing Arundhati Roy, Kamila Shamsie, Arthur Rimbaud and Joan Didion as her influences, Megha believes her successes are not hers alone. “I overcame the odds by leaning on loved ones. My successes belong to all the people who carried me,” says the Indian poetess, admitting that she is a very private person. “I just didn’t indulge or encourage anything that threatened my safe space. When times got tough, I scaled back. I kept my family and friends close,” says the poet who admits to being a very private person.
Next, the Indian poetess hopes, “To do things that make me happy!” When not writing poetry, Megha she is deep into fiction - Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri. Very active on Instagram, Megha has been teaching young girls to love themselves, and helping people heal, especially during the pandemic.
Her favourite Global Indian is KR Meera. The voracious reader rarely watches TV, but says. “I watched Karnan loosely based on the 1995 Kodiyankulam violence,” says Megha who likes to indulge in body painting, calling it therapeutic.
(February 1, 2022) Standing stop a mountain peak, covered with a blanket of clouds is a fantasy for children. Virat Chandra Telukunta is no different. His favourite cartoon show — Doraemon - a fictitious character in Japanese manga would transport him to the mountains and back, even as he sat comfortably in his living room. Yet, unlike most children his age, the then seven-year-old decided to live his dream. A video call from his cousins trekking in Uttarakhand triggered his interest, and left a lasting impression. What followed was intense physical and mental training. Finally, he did the unthinkable for one so young. He went on to become the youngest person to conquer the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro - the tallest mountain in Africa. The rare feat not only brought the Indian child mountaineer laurels but also the Pradhan Mantri Bal Puraskar Award, given to children (five to 18 years of age) with exceptional abilities and outstanding achievements. “The moment I was standing on the mountain peak covered with clouds, the only image on my mind was of Doraemon’s Nobita (a fictional character) and his friends jumping over the clouds,” laughs Virat, now eight. He was the only person from the state of Telangana
e moment I was standing on the mountain peak covered with clouds, the only image on my mind was of Doraemon’s Nobita (a fictional character) and his friends jumping over the clouds,” laughs Virat, now eight. He was the only person from the state of Telangana among 29 others to have been selected for the prestigious award handed over virtually by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, recently.
An Indian child mountaineer finds his ‘calling’
“It was very cold there, my body ached. All I wanted to do is achieve my goal, come what may,” beams Virat in an exclusive with Global Indian. It took six days for the Indian child mountaineer to summit. At one point during his climb, the child confesses, he was bored so he spiced it up with many breaks!
An inspiration to all, Virat is grateful for that video call in 2020 from his relatives in Uttarakhand. “I had just finished my online classes and my mother was feeding me when Karthik anna (brother) and Vaishu akka (sister), who were trekking Rudugaira mountains, call, sharing their experiences and the vista. I was fascinated by the mountains instantly and decided that I too wanted to climb mountains. That's it, I had a lengthy discussion with my parents who agreed,” informs the Indian child mountaineer, a class III student of Gitanjali Devshala School in Hyderabad.
His father Sharat Chandra approached Bharat Tammineni, a mountaineer who runs Boots and Crampons, a Hyderabad-based academy to train trekking enthusiasts. “Bharat Sir first did a physical evaluation. I started training on December 15, 2020,” informs the excited Indian child mountaineer. Then began the rigorous training. The Hyderabad lad would run for 6-7 km every day, do Suryanamaskars, sit-ups, meditation and breathing exercises (anulom-vilom and kapal bhaati) and mock-climbed the Moulali Fort, supervised by Bharat and others. “I got a chance to prove my mettle when I participated in a 5k run. After successfully completing it, Bharat Sir told me I was ready, and he chose Mount Kilimanjaro,” informs Virat.
The road to Mount Kilimanjaro for the Indian child mountaineer
Training completed, Virat, his parents and coach left for South Africa on February 28, 2021. Once formalities were done, they proceeded with the trek on March 5. The first stop was Mandara hut at an elevation of 2,720 metres (approximately 28,000 steps). After spending the night there, the next day, they left for Horombo hut at 3,720 metres. “Enroute to Horombo hut, I was bored, and taking short breaks so my parents shared some inspirational stories (to motivate me). We reached Horombo hut by evening, and spent two nights there,” recalls Virat, whose parents accompanied him till Horombo hut. Thereafter, his parents bid the Indian child mountaineer goodbye, and he undertook the arduous trek to Kibu hut at an elevation of 4,720 metres. “This journey was very challenging,” informs Virat, who overcame multiple challenges - extreme weather and body wear and tear.
The following day, Virat woke up at 3.40 am and undertook the last leg of his journey. “It was a foggy day with heavy winds and snowfall. After trekking for hours, we reached the summit. I couldn’t believe what I saw. Clouds everywhere, and I was standing on top of it (images of Doraemon flitting past),” says Virat, eyes bright recalling seeing a rainbow for the first time. The Indian child mountaineer's descent to his anxious parents waiting at Horombo hut was good. “On seeing me, my mother broke down and hugged me real tight,” smiles the child, whose name has been recorded in the Asian Book of Records and Indian Book of Records for his feat. “Thereafter, I got so many gifts,” smiles the super trooper who stuck to his usual diet comprising Indian food while summiting Kilimanjaro.
Next is Australia for the Indian child mountaineer
Now, the Indian child mountaineer, Virat is enthused, “I am preparing to climb Mount Kosciuszko, the highest mountain in Australia. Bharat Sir suggested it,” pipes Virat, who otherwise likes playing guitar, reading, cricket, skating and even dancing. “My target is to climb all the highest mountain peaks in the world before I turn 10,” pipes Virat, who has participated in many competitions - storytelling, fancy dress, shloka recitation, cycling and running race. One can even find the little lad cooking with his mother on occasion.
Named Virat, the Hyderabad boy says his mother came across the name reading Satyarth Prakasam. “Another reason is that the last letters of my parents name adds up to Virat,” smiles the Indian child mountaineer, an October 2013 born.
(August 17, 2024) A summer camp at Stanford University was enough to ignite a passion for AI in Hinsdale Central junior Jui Khankari. However, the hunger to learn more was left unsatiated for the lack of adequate resources to fuel her interest in AI. This led the then 16-year-old to launch her educational non-profit, AInspire, a free resource for people of all ages to learn about artificial intelligence and its many applications. Run entirely on donations, the nonprofit has served over 26,000 students in 91 countries so far through virtual workshops, videos, and educational curriculum created by the Indian American teenager who was named among the Presidential Scholars of 2022. Now at the age of 19, she has found herself on the list of 2024 Forbes 30 Under 30 for her work in the field of education. "Khankari developed an AI curriculum adopted by 38 school districts as well as organizations like the Boys and Girls Club, National Science Teachers Association, Discovery Education, the White House, and the National Center for Women in Information Technology," wrote Forbes. [caption id="attachment_38855" align="aligncenter" width="416"] Jui Khankari[/caption] Gravitating towards AI For Jui, an Indian-origin girl from Illinois, her journey into artificial intelligence began when
For Jui, an Indian-origin girl from Illinois, her journey into artificial intelligence began when she taught Siri to pronounce her name correctly. After years of people mispronouncing her name in the US, she finally decided to take action when even her mom's phone got it wrong. By making some adjustments, Jui succeeded in getting Siri to say her name the right way. This experience sparked her interest in AI, but her enthusiasm nearly faded as she found herself the only girl in various workshops. Jui said in an interview that she often had instructors performing coding for her, to the extent that she wasn't learning anything. It was a frustrating reality for her and many young girls like her, as only 32 percent of the data and artificial intelligence workforce are female, according to the World Forum's 2021 report.
In 2019, she decided to give AI one more chance, when she was selected for a camp at Stanford University with 31 other girls from other parts of the globe. The camp was a revelation for her as she understood that AI could be applied to health care, mental health, and energy optimisation. "Naturally, technologies that only affect women would be less likely to be developed if there aren’t women fighting for them to be developed. Men might have different agendas, or they just might honestly forget that this is something that we need. It’s a real need, and so that’s why I just really want to get more women inspired and empowered to enter the field so we can make our voices and our needs heard," the Global Indian told a daily.
[caption id="attachment_24897" align="aligncenter" width="550"] Jui Khankari is currently studying at Stanford University[/caption]
The beginning of AInspire
In February 2020, the Diana Award recipient founded AInspire to motivate and support young girls interested in AI, including her sister Neha. With the help of 11 young women from around the world, including classmates and friends she met at the Stanford camp, she developed new lessons and activities to enhance users' understanding of artificial intelligence. AInspire also focuses on building the technical, interpersonal, and comprehension skills necessary for a career in this growing field. Although AInspire is primarily aimed at middle and high school students, Jui believes everyone should have a basic understanding of AI, as it is integral to every industry. This belief drives her commitment to keeping AInspire free and accessible to all.
Making an impact
Born to doctor parents, she witnessed them treating COVID-19 patients, which sparked her interest in applying AI to healthcare. She is now focused on developing AI to detect strokes and identify the bifurcation of the major artery supplying blood to the brain, aiming to enable early detection of neurodegenerative diseases. She has already tested two AI algorithms, and her research has demonstrated that strokes can be detected using AI. "Two million neurons die every minute that a stroke is left untreated. By reducing treatment times even by a single minute, this algorithm could reduce death and disability in stroke patients worldwide," she said.
She has developed custom curriculum for underserved school districts in Chicago and community colleges in New Jersey, and collaborated with MKAI to deliver AI talks to business professionals. Her teaching experience spans workshops in English, Spanish, Hindi, and Marathi, reaching students from Bolivia to Bangladesh and beyond.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqd9Ix0AU9w
Jui, the 2022 Regeneron Science Talent Search winner and a computer science student at Stanford University, has ambitious plans for AInspire's future. She hopes to partner with school districts to integrate AI into elementary, middle, and high school curricula. As for her own career, Jui aspires to become both a researcher and a physician, combining her passion for patient care with developing algorithms to advance healthcare.
(July 29, 2022) Sitting on the sofa at home and helping his grandmother take dozens of medications every evening to treat her chronic asthma is one of the earliest memories that shaped Syamantak Payra's outlook on life and his desire to help. Desperate to help, he invented a makeshift breathing machine "out of some straws and balloons" at age four. "It was rudimentary and practically ineffectual, but it came from the same motivation that still drives me: I saw a problem, and I wanted to help," says the 2022 Hertz Foundation Fellow. From the same desire stemmed the idea of developing a knee brace that helped the inventor and researcher win the Intel Foundation Young Scientist Award in 2016. "I want to help people. Whether that's by creating new biomedical technologies that will improve patients' prognoses, or through literacy outreach that will help create new opportunities for young students, I wish to use my capabilities in the ways that I will best be able to help empower others," he tells Global Indian. [caption id="attachment_20036" align="aligncenter" width="541"] Syamantak Payra[/caption] Curiosity, science and innovations Growing up in Houston, a stone's throw away from Johnson Space Centre - headquarter for many NASA
Growing up in Houston, a stone's throw away from Johnson Space Centre - headquarter for many NASA operations, Syamantak would spend endless afternoons enquiring about the workings of the world from his Bengali grandfather. Curious to know "why the colours in rainbows appeared in that order or how car engines and sewing machines worked or why leaves on trees didn’t all blow the same way", his inquisitiveness was embraced by his parents, grandparents, and later, teachers. As early as Grade one, he began completing his scientific projects which helped him tiptoe into the world of science "as a method of inquiry.” Over the years, it translated into a love for the subject and many scientific disciplines including "materials science and the physics of photovoltaic cells and biomedical engineering and robotics."
The following years of experimentation, discoveries, and innovations culminated in his first breakthrough in 2016 when the inventor won big at the Intel Science Fair for developing a knee brace that can help individuals partially disabled by polio to walk swiftly. For someone who always "wanted to help", he was inspired to take on the project after learning about his teacher's polio-led partial paralysis. "I was interested in robotics, and wanted to try to use robotics to help restore some of his capabilities: effectively creating a robotic leg brace that would allow him to walk with less effort and pain," says the inventor who revised and built his prototypes for over two years.
[caption id="attachment_20037" align="aligncenter" width="399"] Syamantak Payra showcasing one of his inventions[/caption]
The power of innovation to transform lives
With no prior experience in programming or biomechanics, the project was nothing short of a "self-guided crash course" for him. "I pored over hundreds of papers analysing prosthetics and anatomy, developed my data equipment and analysis methods, and had my teacher try on the prototypes to evaluate their functionality. My revised version of the robotic leg brace was able to restore nearly 99 percent of his knee mobility, and allowed him to walk with 33 percent less effort," adds the inventor.
As someone passionate about research, Syamantak is "excited about the potential for innovation and the power it holds to create transformative new technologies" to create positive impacts in the world. Keeping up with his quest to find solutions that create a ripple effect, he made some interesting innovations during his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and computer science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology - one of which is digital fibers for electronic garments that can assist in diagnosing illnesses. Explaining his work in the MIT Fibres Group, he says that it has enabled them to "create polymer threads with microchips embedded within the fibers. These fibers can then be woven into fabrics that contain those microchips directly within the textile." A technology that took over four years to develop, he says, helps create fibers that are capable of sensing, computing, and communicating, such that worn garments will be better able to assist in monitoring, diagnosing, and treating health conditions.
The impactful work
The years at MIT turned out to be fruitful as he ended up making prototypes like temperature detecting shirts that could detect heatstroke and potential dehydration to making spacesuits that help improve astronauts' situational awareness and their safety on spacewalks. "The spacesuits worn for spacewalks must be pressurised against the vacuum of space; one side-effect is that if something touches or impacts the spacesuit, it is difficult for the astronaut to feel it. In addition, spacesuits are constantly bombarded by space dust, particles that can travel at thousands of kilometers per second and significantly damage textiles. By incorporating sensors and advanced electronics into the spacesuit construction, we can imitate different sensations and reproduce them on the skin," he beams with pride.
[caption id="attachment_20038" align="aligncenter" width="639"] Syamantak in a Nanotechnology class at MIT.[/caption]
Having walked the corridors of MIT for years and creating some stellar innovations, it holds a special place for Syamantak - as it not only honed his skills as an engineer and a scientist but also as a community leader. "Crucially, it's shown me how the most important part of engineering isn't the blueprints, it's the people: who will use something, how, and why." The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans recipient is now gearing up for a PhD in engineering at Stanford and aims to create "new biomedical technologies that can interface more closely with the body and help us address exactly those gaps in healthcare: difficult early diagnoses, complex monitoring in-vivo, and careful post-treatment care."
A community leader
But it isn't just his innovations through which Syamantak is creating ripples in society, his zeal for literacy and STEM has helped him extend help to the underserved children in Houston. A spelling bee champ through his middle school, he was keen to share his love for the language and started literacy workshops sharing spelling and vocabulary lessons to young students for which he received the Presidential Volunteer Service Award for outstanding commitment to education twice. Moreover, he launched a STEM outreach program (CORES) at his high school called CORES which has now expanded to more under-resourced schools. "At MIT, I was also part of a group called DynaMIT; every year, we host a summer program aimed at helping underprivileged students in the Boston area gain exposure to STEM fields through experiments and activities that they wouldn’t have experienced within their schools."
This desire to make an impact helps Syamantak push the envelope with each of his innovations. Years of working in the field have come with their share of learning, and the one that has made the 21-year-old humble is that "part of the joy in scientific research is the discovery that comes from unexpected connections." The Bengali lad loves poetry, so much so that he spent hours learning Rabindranath Tagore's songs and poems while growing up, and is now a published poet. A strong believer in the power of music, Syamantak plays violin and piano, produces classical and modern music, and is an avid photographer. "I view the world through a camera lens: filming wide landscapes from aerial drones gives me a sense of perspective, and photographing minuscule wildflowers with a macro lens lets me connect intimately with the smallest details of nature," he says.
Having received many fellowships and awards including Hertz Foundation Fellowship, the Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans, the Stanford Knight-Hennessy Scholars Program, and the Astronaut Foundation Scholarship, Syamantak feels grateful for them as they have been instrumental in supporting his academic pursuits by funding his studies, he says. However, for him, the ultimate validation would be to create a direct impact on the lives of people with his work. "If I can improve someone's quality of life, or aid a patient in their treatment or recovery, that is the most direct validation that I have been able to make a difference through my work," he signs off.
Megha Rao performs at an event[/caption]
Megha Rao[/caption]
Jui Khankari is currently studying at Stanford University[/caption]
Syamantak Payra[/caption]
Syamantak Payra showcasing one of his inventions[/caption]
Syamantak in a Nanotechnology class at MIT.[/caption]