By Khalida Sarwari
Vineet Kosaraju is working hard to bring researchers closer to developing diagnostics that fight vision degeneration, destroy viral genes and combat cancer. And who knows, sometime in the near future his name may be all over scientific journals. But first, he’s got to finish high school.
The 16-year-old Harker School student recently won a $10,000 scholarship from the Davidson Institute for Talent Development for a research project he worked on last year. He received the exciting news via email in August.
“I was actually super surprised at first; I thought it was a long shot,” the Saratoga resident said. “That was probably my first reaction–just surprise. After that it hit me that I’m a fellow, that I’ve become a part of an amazing group of people that’s contributing to the world. That’s a really nice feeling.”
Being named a Davidson fellow is no small feat; Vineet is one of only 20 young people across the country who was recognized for creating significant projects that have the potential to benefit society in the fields of science, technology, engineering, mathematics, literature and music. The recognition and scholarship prize aside, the honor gives him an opportunity to expand his interest in research, said Vineet.
“I met lots of high school students that did projects that had an impact on their communities at large,” he said, adding that he is proud to be among a community of researchers that can contribute to helping other people and bring about change.
The project that won him the accolade is one he conducted at a Stanford lab last summer. Vineet’s project focused on creating an online platform for researchers to investigate and design a unique molecule called RNA which is found everywhere in life from humans to bacteria and is relevant to research not only because it is so prevalent in life but also because it can be used to create diagnostics that detect diseases and therapeutics that can treat diseases.
“My project used an interesting concept called ‘crowdsourcing,’ where I took ideas and input from random people all over the world and used their input to create RNA molecules and contribute to real scientific research,” said Vineet. “Interestingly enough, these people were able to do better at creating RNA molecules than algorithms used by scientists.”
Vineet explained that whereas previous efforts at creating RNA were mostly trial-and-error-based, he took an approach that was based on a rational understanding of the molecule, which allowed for an improved model. Furthermore, previous efforts focused mostly on two-dimensional versions of these molecules, he said, while he attempted to investigate the molecule in three dimensions.
Vineet said he became interested in research in middle school when, inspired by his older brother, he entered the Synopsys Championship for the first time. The annual contest challenges middle and high school students in Santa Clara County to do independent project-based research to address questions in the fields of computer science, environmental science, medicine and health, chemistry and biology, among other fields. He won an award that first year and has participated in the competition every year since.
When he’s not being a mad scientist in the lab, the Harker senior spends his time applying to colleges and playing the piano and golf. Though he’s not sure at this point what his future holds, Vineet is confident research will always be a part of it.
“I know that whatever I decide to do, research will be at the center,” he said. “It’s a big part of who I am.”
His advice to his peers: don’t be afraid to fail and learn to manage your time.
“It might take a long time to get the procedure right or to be able to do a research project; just keep on trying until you’re happy with what you have,” he said. “If you’re doing further research in high school, make sure you know how to manage your time effectively, otherwise it will be difficult to manage your time with courses, extracurriculars and research.”
Vineet, along with the other 2015 fellows, was honored at a reception in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 29.
For more information about Vineet and the Davidson Institute for Talent Development scholarship program, visit davidsonfellowsscholarship.org.
Link: Harker’s Vineet Kosaraju wins a Davidson Fellows Scholarship
