My Story
Here's a brief story and timeline about me. Start from the beginning here.
2024 to Present:
To be added.
2023:
After finishing my first year of University, I received the opportunity to work in Biomedical Engineering for The Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) as a Biomedical Engineering Intern on Organ-on-a-Chip Microfabrication. After spending time in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, working for TNO; I had the opportunity to work as an Undergraduate Research Assistant at the Dr. Robert Rohling Laboratory at UBC on Ultrasound Transducer Testing Beds.
While working in The Netherlands, I raised a Pre-Seed Round of Funding for Mitra Biotechnologies led by Cory Levy, Pareto Holdings, and Alchemist Accelerator.
I also received the opportunity to become a Z Fellow.
Starting my second year of university, I focused on building our product and vision further at Mitra Biotechnologies.
2022:
In Grade 12, I kept developing the heart attack detection project and onboarded a few advisors to help commercialize the technology (i.e., for Mitra Biotechnologies). I enjoyed Grade 12. I taught myself a lot of Applied Mathematics - specifically vector calculus and differential equations. I also self-studied for the AP Calculus BC and AP Physics C exams.
When it was time to decide where to go for university, it came down to the following:
- University of Waterloo for Biomedical Engineering
- Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) for Nanobiology
- The University of British Columbia (UBC) Vancouver for Biomedical Engineering as a CAD 80K full-ride Presidential Scholar
I ended up deciding to go to UBC Vancouver for Biomedical Engineering as it was away from my hometown of Waterloo, the curriculum quality specifically for Biomedical Engineering was more aligned with what I wanted to learn, and the full-ride Presidential Scholarship.
Over the summer, I was selected to become a Member of the SoftBank Group Corp.'s Masason Foundation and a Global Teen Leader.
In September 2022, I started university. I instantly liked my Physics courses the most and started to teach myself Lagrangian and Hamiltonian Mechanics (as I eventually wanted to learn Quantum Mechanics).
2021:
From late 2020 until Summer 2021 was by far the most challenging period in all of high school (my Grade 11 year) - simply because I was in complete social isolation due to Pandemic policies and I was managing two startups, EyeCane and the early conceptions of Mitra Biotechnologies (based on my heart attack detection science fair project), self-studying for 5 AP exams, participating in International DECA, and CWSF 2021.
I received a Gold Medal, the $7K Youth Can Innovate Award, and the Best Senior Project for my CWSF 2021 Project based on my heart attack detection device.
Over Summer 2021, I interned as a Software Engineer at Nokia in their Cloud Networks Division.
2020:
In Grade 10, I did many hackathon projects, with my favourite being UofTHacks in January 2020. I also developed a few projects that implemented web3 development (using solidity and Ethereum smart contracts) and computer vision (using TensorFlow, OpenCV, and Keras) - some of these can be accessed here.
During the summer of 2020, I participated in the InspoScience Canada IRIC Science Fair for my heart attack detection project after building a few initial prototypes that proved its working principle - I received a Gold Medal and an offer to work as an intern at Nokia.
I also raised a very small seed round of funding for EyeCane over that summer.
Entering Grade 11, I decided I wanted to take 5 AP Exams (in Physics 1, Physics 2, Calculus AB, Biology, and Chemistry) before taking the AP Courses themselves so I could free up more time in Grade 12 to work on my projects.
2019:
When I started Grade 9, I joined a club in my high school (Waterloo Collegiate Institute) that was part of the MIT Launch X Clubs Entrepreneurship Program. I really wanted to commercialize my iCane device in the real world after attending the first session at this club, and I quickly developed an interest in building things.
I founded my first "startup" called EyeCane, which aimed to commercialize my iCane project. I recruited some of my high school friends to join (funny enough most of them ended up interning at Tesla when they entered University) and we became one of the top 20 out of 1000 high school startups internationally to pitch at the MIT Launch X Clubs Global Demo Day in 2019.
Additionally, in January 2019, I lost my close aunt due to a heart attack. After speaking with a few cardiologists, this sparked my curiosity in heart attack diagnostics. During the summer of 2019, I read a bunch of research papers and started formulating an idea for another science fair project - a device that could potentially detect and predict heart attacks faster than the current status quo. I cold-emailed a bunch of Professors at the University of Waterloo to start working in their labs and potentially build a few early prototypes for the device that I envisioned. A few of them responded so I decided to start working with them
I also became very interested in web development and started to learn how to build full-stack apps that used MongoDB, React, ExpressJS, and NodeJS.
2018:
In the summer of 2017, myself and my parents moved to Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. Throughout Grade 8, I started to learn C, go deeper into C++ and JavaScript, and Python. I also started to learn Java.
I used these languages to program Arduinos for my iCane project and built additional features such as a heart rate monitor and a GPS Android App that spoke to the user where nearby locations and facilities were located. I also learned how to solder and built some preliminary circuits to connect the line-follower element to an ultrasonic sensor for obstacle detection and avoidance (here's a video of it from 2018 Summer).
2017:
Grade 7 was quite a unique experience for me. I started learning how to code in C++ and built my first science fair project - a modified line-follower robot to aid visually impaired individuals in navigation (which I called iCane). I received a Silver Medal at the Canada Wide Science Fair (CWSF) in 2017 for this project.
CWSF was an amazing experience primarily because it was the first time I flew on an airplane without my parents and lived without my parents (with a group of other CWSF finalists) for approximately a week to Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. This is still one of my most memorable experiences and, according to my parents, helped me "grow up" quickly.
2013 to 2016
When I was in Grade 3, I really started to like Math and Science a lot. I loved reading medical textbooks on the human body and liked doing Math contests. In 2014, my parents and I moved to Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. Starting in Grade 6, I was heavily fascinated with the world of coding, and I started to learn markup languages when I was 12 years old - building up to introductory JavaScript.
2008 to 2012:
My parents and I moved to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada in late 2007 / early 2008. During these years, I fell in love with the world of Biology and Medicine - specifically, I wanted to become a cardiac surgeon. A lot of my early passions were influenced by visiting my grandparents in India over winter breaks and seeing the disparity between India's and Canada's healthcare systems. I also really liked to do Math and appreciated Physics. I watched a lot of videos on Albert Einstein and Richard Feynman. I also loved watching videos of the Space Shuttle Launches with my Dad, and at one point, I wanted to become an astronaut to go to Mars (largely because of, well, the only other famous person I knew with my name at that time was Neil Armstrong).
2004 to 2007:
I was born in India in 2004. My parents are both Canadian citizens and I have been Canadian since then. I lived in Bombay from 2004 to late 2007 / early 2008. My earliest memories were of being fascinated by airplanes, spaceships, and medicine. My fascination with aviation started when I started flying with my parents to different countries. I started to develop an early interest in medicine when I saw my uncle in India (who is a cardiologist) treat his patients in his own practice.