Asian Fortune Your source for all things Asian American
By Devika Koppikar
Many 18-year-olds spend time snapping candid photos with their iPhones. But, that’s not the case with Saumil Bandyopadhyay. Instead, the only child of an electrical engineering professor (father, Supriyo) and math/reading teacher (mother, Anuradha) spends his days conducting research on the infrared photo detector.
What is an infrared photo detector?
“It is a sensor of light, especially infrared light that cannot be seen by the human eye,” said Saumil, in a phone interview from his father’s Richmond office at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU).
How did Saumil, now a freshman at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), get interested in this electrical engineering phenomenon?
In the 10th grade, he relinquished the typical teen magazines and instead read an article about photo detectors in a science magazine.
Lucky for Saumil, his father, Supriyo, an engineering professor at VCU, brought his son to work in the university’s lab.
“Saumil worked on different areas of science and engineering at different times. He conducted research in corrosion inhibition, wetting behavior of surfaces, infrared photo detection, and most recently quantum computing. The work that attracted most attention is photo detection” said Dr. Bandyopadhyay.
Saumil then discovered a critical application of his research for example, how to detect fog in darkness so as to reduce car crashes.
“Every year, 40,000 people die in car crashes,” said Saumil. “So, further developing this technology could help reduce this number.”
His research also found applications for monitoring global warming and bomb detection.
Soon, he connected with his father’s colleague, Jayasimha Atulasimha (Professor Atul) an associate professor in mechanical engineering at VCU. Through Professor Atul, Saumil conducted extensive experiments on a quantum computing project where the spin Hanle effect (another light phenomenon) was demonstrated at room temperature in a special configuration.
“For a high school student, Saumil had a deep understanding of the subject,” said Professor Atul. “He takes this understanding to build a strong vision of what he wants to do with a project. He is also very patient and willing to take on experiments where one has to take extensive samples with only a fraction producing results. But Saumil is very ambitious and willing to risk the commitment involved until it pays off.”
The risks and patience resulted in more than a summer adventure or afterschool project for the young man. The time in the lab yielded in critical material for the Intel Science Fair, where Nobel laureate astrophysicist John Mather noticed the infrared device. Saumil next found himself on a greater journey. He was invited to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center to discuss his technology, participated in the International Space Olympics in Russia, and visited Switzerland and France to showcase his research. Saumil then returned home to present his project to President Obama at the 2013 White House Science Fair. Most recently, Saumil received the Smithsonian’s 2013 American Ingenuity Award.
“Saumil has five peer-reviewed journal articles in print and one patent application pending with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office,” said Dr. Bandyopadhyay.
Was it Dr. Bandyopadhyay hope that his son would follow in his footsteps with a career in electrical engineering research?
“No, it was a coincidence (that he’s shown interest in the same field). In fact, I didn’t encourage him because you don’t make that much money,” Dr. Bandyopadhyay said.
While accomplished at a young age, Saumil said he’s still deciding exactly what he wants to do in his career. Currently, he is majoring in electrical engineering and plans to have a career involving scientific research.
“I could see him as faculty member, researcher or maybe he would take his creativity and innovation and translate these skills into a start-up,” said Professor Atul.
Does he do anything typical of people his age? He recently got his driver’s license and downloads Bollywood tunes to listen to while in the car. He also loves both Hollywood and Bollywood-style action movies. And while he may not spend a majority of time updating his Facebook page with candid photographs, he does participate in social media.