Anmol Chopra

Anmol is currently pursuing a Master's in Bioengineering Innovation and Design, from the Department of Biomedical Engineering at The Johns Hopkins University. He is confident that this will be “a life changing experience” for him as he will be developing two high impact medical devices this year. His primary interest is in bringing about a positive change for the low resource segment of society. Thus, the major focus of his work is in developing low cost medical devices for such markets. Anmol did his Bachelor of Technology in Chemical Engineering from IIT Kharagpur where he had a diversified experience in microfluidics research by working in various laboratories. As an undergraduate student, Anmol interned in academic research at MIT, did corporate research with Siemens, and a stint in a Manufacturing plant in Japan. It was during his internship at Siemens, when in 2 months he got one patent and one publication done, that he realised that creating medical devices excited him. Anmol has always been engaged in community service to help people in need. He has interned at SOS Children's Village: an orphanage where he taught students and also visited rural areas to create awareness on education. During his stay at IIT Kharagpur, he was instrumental in creating the Student Welfare Group, a body that worked in tandem with the Counselling Centre. As the leader of this group, he took a lot of initiatives to help the student community of KGP.

Avinash Nayak

Avinash graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur with a Master of Science in Exploration Geophysics in 2012, with a 9.32 GPA, one of the highest that any student has scored in the Department in a decade. As the Literary Secretary and general Secretary of the student society of the ‘Earth Science Study Circle’, he helped organise the Fresher’s Welcome, Field photography competitions and the publication of the Departmental Journal, GEOS.  Presently pursuing graduate studies (PhD) at Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of California at Berkeley as a member of Berkeley Seismological Laboratory, Avinash hopes to become a good seismologist in the areas of seismic source mechanics and wave propagation so that we can know more about the Earth’s structure and various processes associated with it. Always keenly interested in seismic hazard analysis, Avinash hopes someday to be able to implement his learning in India, so that, with an enhanced understanding of Earth’s processes it is possible to exploit our natural resources in a sustainable manner.

Bhargava Kumar

Bhargava is currently pursuing a PhD in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Notre Dame, USA.  He grew up in Chennai and Hyderabad, and is fluent in English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu. He is passionate about photography and travel. He did his under-graduate studies from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur , majoring in Aerospace Engineering, where his research was on low Reynolds flow over Micro air vehicles. He was also a part of teams involved in developing a micro air vehicle and a partial solar powered aircraft with funding from the Boeing Company, U.S.A. He interned at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and did research on high speed cameras. He has been able to successfully integrate his interest in photography with his undergraduate research which shaped his view of research and belief in an artistic approach to it. In his words, Bhargava is “awed by the endless streak of intellectual challenges aerospace has to offer to satiate one’s curiosity which makes me passionate about it.” Bhargava hopes to bridge the gap between academia and aerospace industries in India where there exists a clear communication gap, in order to transform India from a purchaser of aircrafts into a competitive aircraft manufacturer.

Deepashre Sengupta

Deepashree was born in West Bengal and spent her childhood and youth in Kolkata and Vadodara. She studied Instrumentation Engineering within the department of Electrical Engineering in Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur where she has always ranked within the top 2 in her department. While in college, she took an active part in Dramatics, Elocution, Table Tennis and at Kshitij, the techno-management festival of IIT Kharagpur, winning numerous laurels in extra-curricular activities. She has also been associated with an NGO called Gopali Youth Welfare Society which provides free education to underprivileged children in a village near IIT campus. She took part in various technical design events and her design of a Hopfield network on an ATmega16L platform has been incorporated as a part of the experiments in the Virtual Laboratory Project, sponsored by MHRD, Govt. of India. She has presented a paper titled “Estimation of instantaneous states of an SI gasoline engine using EKF and UKF” at the 2011 Annual IEEE India Conference (INDICON), December, 2011, and has been published in IEEE Xplore. She is currently pursuing her PhD in Electrical Engineering in the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities in the field of VLSI. After completion of her graduate studies, she aspires to make a career in academia as a professor and researcher, and translate her work into something tangible that takes science and society forward.

Harshad Kunte

Harshad completed his B.Tech. degree in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Bombay and is now pursuing an MS degree in ME at the Pennsylvania State University, where he intends to focus on future transportation systems, particularly intelligent electric mobility as a means of sustainable transportation. While at IIT Bombay, Harshad co-led IIT Bombay Racing - a small 12 man student project and transformed it into a 60 strong automotive product development organisation over 2 years. As part of this initiative, he led the development of an All Terrain Vehicle (ATV) for a competition organised by SAE India. The team was awarded the Peer Review - Best ATV of 2012 by Mahindra & Mahindra. He also played a key role in the development of India's first electric race car-the EVo1 at IIT Bombay. The vehicle was presented at the Silverstone Formula 1 race track in July 2012 at an international automotive design competition. Harshad has a keen interest in studying policy, strategy and awareness related issues faced by the electric vehicle (EV) industry. He believes that large scale adoption of EVs requires a holistic approach with participation from government, industry and academia. He believes the global auto industry is undergoing a revolution in the way cars are powered, one that promises to alter auto industry. Harshad’s ambition is to emerge as one of the leaders in this new landscape of sustainable mobility. In his free time, he enjoys swimming and has more recently caught on to scuba diving which has become a new found passion.

Rajat Sethi

Rajat grew up in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh and graduated with a Dual Degree (BTech & MTech) in Computer Science & Engineering along with a Minor in Economics from IIT Kharagpur in 2009. He did his sophomore year internship at Intel (ARM R&D) where he was adjudged the Best Student Intern and his work resulted in a patent. The following summer he did his research in University of Waterloo on an ultra-cheap rural internet paradigm called KRANTI (Kiosks in Rural Areas for Network & Telecom Infrastructure). After graduation he, along with his friends, started a Solar Photovoltaics Engineering company called Exergy to design and install Megawatt sized Solar PV power plants. After working there for 3 years, Rajat was appointed as a Strategy Consultant at the World Bank Group. Rajat is currently pursuing a 3 year Joint Master’s program - MBA at MIT Sloan School of Management and Master in Public Administration (MPA) at Harvard University. Rajat is interested in working as a social entrepreneur at the intersection of Technology, Policy and Tech-aided Development in sectors spanning across Rural Infrastructure, Clean Energy - Solar Power and its derivative products for Agribusiness. Rajat is also an Aga Khan Fellow, KC Mahindra Scholar and McKinsey Fellow.

Varun Mishra

Varun grew up in Rourkela, Orissa, and has a Bachelor's degree in Electronics & Electrical Communication Engineering, from IIT Kharagpur. He is currently pursuing a doctorate degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. Having attended the National Olympiad camps in science held at TIFR, he developed a deep interest in Physics which led him to pursue the newly emerged and fast evolving field of nanoscience. He also completed a minor in Physics, while at IIT Kharagpur. He now works on new devices based on single layered materials like Graphene in order to solve the critical problems of low power devices and phonon scattering which have become crucial in state of the art nanoscale devices.  Apart from having excelled in studies throughout his student life, Varun avidly participates in many extracurricular activities such as choreography, is a keen water polo player and loves sweating it out on the tennis courts, all of which culminated in him being awarded the best outgoing all-rounder from his hall of residence at IIT.

Vivek Mishra

Vivek completed his schooling in Rourkela and has a Bachelor of Technology degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur. While consistently performing well in his four years at IIT Kharapgur, Vivek also completed a number of research projects in varied areas which include Cryogenic Engineering, combustion, airflow simulation in human lungs and nano-scale heat transfer.  He was awarded the Institute Silver medal for graduating at the top of his class of Mechanical Engineering in the year 2012. Apart from academics, Vivek has been a member of the Inter IIT Aquatics and Water Polo team of IIT Kharagpur, and was awarded an Honourable Mention in sports from IIT Kharagpur, which recognised his contributions towards the institute’s silver and bronze winning campaigns in the years 2010 and 2011 respectively at the intensely contested Inter IIT Water Polo meets. Vivek is now at the University of California, Berkeley pursuing his PhD in Mechanical Engineering, where he will be continuing his research in nano-scale heat transfer with a focus on anisotropic materials.

N. Arvind

Arvind is a recipient of a Travel Grant from Tiara Charitable Foundation. Having completed his schooling from From Bhilai, Chhattisgarh, Arvind earned a dual degree (B.Tech.(Hons.) / M.Tech.) in Ocean Engineering and Naval Architecture from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. Apart from academics, during his years at IIT, Arvind was keenly involved in numerous extra-curricular activities in which he won numerous awards, and was ‘Springfest’ coordinator, Governor of the Western music society, and a member of the Eastern music society. He will now be pursuing a PhD at the Ocean Structures laboratory, at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where he will work on the structural stability of Flexible pipelines, employed in the sector of oil & gas in ultra-deep waters.  Always fascinated by the field of ocean and marine structures, Arvind hopes that he will eventually be able to pursue a research career and “work with young students, thereby encouraging them to make a contribution to science.”

Ilma Afroz

From Kundarki, Moradabad, Ilma has a first class in Philosophy (Hons) from St. Stephens College, Delhi. She earned her Master’s in Contemporary India from Wolfson College, University of Oxford.  She also attended the Institut d’études politiques de Paris as an exchange student. Ilma has experience interning at the United Nations Office for REDD+ Coordination in Indonesia and in the communications office of 42nd President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the Clinton Foundation in New York City. Ilma is multi-faceted, with varied talents and interests. An avid debater, she has won numerous debates on both national and international platforms. Articulate and bold in voicing her beliefs, Ilma’s pieces have been published in The Hindu, World Policy Journal, DailyO among others.  She is socially conscientious, and spent a lot of her time during her under-graduate years volunteering for numerous causes like working with cancer patients, the dying and destitute in Homes run by the Missionaries of Charity, and helping visually challenged students in college by writing university papers, reading texts and organising out station trips. She has a knack for learning new languages and knows Hindi, Urdu, Sanskrit, Bhojpuri, Bahasa Indonesia, French and Arabic. Her interests include reading, debating, law and climate smart agriculture. Idealistic and passionate, Ilma is deeply committed to “Ensuring visible change in the everyday lives of people, transcending all barriers, contributing towards a unified world of peace.”

Anubha Garg

Anubha grew up in Faridabad, Haryana and then graduated in Agriculture and Food Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, having ranked first in her Department. She was awarded the ‘Institute Silver medal’ by IIT Kharagpur for graduating with the highest CGPA in a degree course. With consistently creditable academic records all through school and college, Anubha discovered a talent in swimming as well and led the Aquatics team to victory while at IIT.  Currently she is doing a Master’s degree in Grain Science and Industry at Kansas State University, USA. Born and brought up in a developing country, where many go without even the bare minimum in terms of nutrition, and “having seen a large amount of food being wasted during production due to lack of proper technology and poor post harvest handling”, Anubha found herself reflecting on her role as a researcher in agriculture and food. She sees herself in future as being in a position to contribute to the establishment of food safety and food security in developing countries by increasing the shelf life of food and promoting the use of under-exploited crops.

Nurali Virani

Nurali is from Maharashtra and has a dual degree, B. Tech. in Manufacturing Science & Engineering, and M. Tech. in Industrial Engineering and Management, from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. He is currently at Pennsylvania State University, USA, pursuing a Master’s in Mechanical Engineering. Nurali is passionate about Robotics. As a part of his undergraduate studies, he was involved in many academic and extra-curricular projects in Robotics, making prototypes or models like an autonomous fire fighter and tele-controlled surveillance robots, amongst others, several of which won him prizes and accolades.  He already has patents published and filed. Patent Published: An Autonomous Vehicular Robotic Device/Appliance for Area Coverage by Self-Exploration with Limited Information.(2010).  Patent Filed: A Novel 6D0F platform for micromanipulation with piezoelectric actuators and compliant mechanisms (2011). However, he feels that although he has studied Robotics deeply, he has only been “able to see the tip of this field, but the bulk is still unexplored.”

Tanmay Mandal

Tanmay has a dual degree (BTech and MTech) from the Department of Aerospace Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. He ranked 2nd at state level in the Class 12 examination of the CBSE, and continued to maintain an excellent academic record all through college. Having grown up in Port Blair and on coastal Tamil Nadu, he is interested in turtle conservation projects and football. He will be leaving in the spring semester for West Virginia University to pursue a Doctorate in Aerospace Engineering. Always fascinated by flying objects, Tanmay was awarded “Boeing Student Fellowship” for his thesis and academic performance in 2010-11. He presented a conference paper titled “Development and Testing of Atmega 128 Autopilot” at a conference organized by Institute of Engineers (India) describing how hardware and software can be used in tandem to control an UAV. He is currently working on developing a hybrid controller using Neural-Networks for the autopilot.  He would like to work in research and development in the aerospace field and in future explore the possibility of opening his own company.

Ganga Shreedhar

Ganga has a B.A. in Economics from Stella Maris College (Madras University), an M.A. in Development Studies from the Tata Institute of Development Studies (Mumbai) and has worked for over three years at the International Food Policy Research Institute as a research analyst. She is now enrolled at The London School of Economics and Political Science for postgraduate study in the MPA programme in Public and Economic Policy. A committed student and researcher, Ganga secured the top rank in her higher secondary school examination, with gold medals in five subjects. Since then she has consistently maintained an excellent academic record, interned with Centre for Science and Environment, volunteered in various social initiatives and organizations like Exnora, Crime Prevention and Victim Care, participated in social movements like the Right to Information campaign and co-authored newspaper articles in ‘The Economic Times’.  Multi-dimensional in her talents, Ganga is also an artist and designer with a published book cover for a book on the Yamuna River under her belt. Fluent in Tamil and English, she has also studied Hindi and French. She has travelled widely in India, Nepal and China on work and eventually plans to pursue a career in public and economic policy research in the South Asian region, especially India. Eloquent, goal oriented, hardworking and passionate about social and developmental issues, Ganga is also a recipient of the prestigious Aga Khan Foundation International Scholarship, 2011.

Sharvil Patil

Sharvil stood first in Maharashtra state in the Higher Secondary Examinations. He earned his B.E. in Electrical and Electronics from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, with a creditable GPA. A multi-faceted person with many talents, Sharvil has not only shown excellence in Academics but in other areas as well. He was a recipient of the Dhirubhai Ambani Scholarship, the Maharashtra state Government Scholarship and the BITS Pilani scholarship; won prizes and accolades in an Analog design contest and an Engineering Graphics contest; was a part of the BITS hockey team; is fluent in English, Marathi and Hindi, and is proficient in both Hindustani Classical music (vocals) and the violin.  Articulate and clear about his goals in life, Sharvil’s objective is “to create innovative solutions for existing challenges in terms of speed, power and technology migration.”  While a student at BITS Pilani, he taught his juniors in the capacity of Teaching Assistant. Hugely inspired by his own professors, Sharvil would one day like to return to India and serve as a teacher as well. He has just started work on a PhD in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Columbia University, USA.

Mujaheed Altaf Shaikh

Mujaheed grew up in Pune. Having completed both his Secondary and Higher Secondary Examinations with Distinction, Mujaheed was given a scholarship to study at the M.A. Rangoonwala College of Physiotherapy and Research, Pune. While completing his graduation he also worked for almost five years as a Voice and Accent, Soft skills and Process trainer and Quality Supervisor at WNS Pvt. Ltd. He graduated in Physiotherapy with the first rank in his college, after which he worked at the Innocent Heroes Foundation, an NGO, providing physiotherapy treatment and counselling to underprivileged children. While volunteering as the Chief Therapist for the Inter NGO Cricket Tournament and providing medical assistance and training for pre-event sport specific exercises, Mujaheed got the opportunity to hone his skills in sports therapy in both prevention and cure of sports related injuries. Always interested in health care, especially prevention of diseases, Mujaheed wishes to work in developing countries to improve the status of health care. He intends eventually “to start a hospital in India that caters to the needs of everyone.”  As a first step to realising his dreams, Mujaheed will now pursue an MSc in International Health Management from the Imperial College, London with a full scholarship from the Aga Khan Foundation. Fluent in English, Marathi, and Hindi, Mujaheed also reads and writes Arabic.

Shaunak Ghosh

Shaunak grew up in Kolkata and has a Master of Science in Exploration Geophysics from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. With consistently high academic records all through school and college, Shaunak has also taken an interest in quizzing, dramatics and athletics.  He is at present pursuing a PhD in Applied Geophysics at The University of Texas at Austin, USA. Shaunak’s ultimate dream is to “join the Indian academia in the capacity of a professor with the intent of becoming an inspirational teacher.”

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