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Sheer Genius

08/27/2008 - By by Tobi Tesoriero

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17-year-old Ashutosh Singhal–Accomplished Student and Scholar

Holmdel resident, Ashutosh Singhal, at the young age of 17, has already won national recognition for his extraordinary academic abilities and achievements. He will be attending MIT this fall, and although he is undecided at this point regarding his major, he is leaning toward electrical engineering and computer science, which comes as no surprise considering his illustrious track record.
 
Ashutosh was the male national winner of the prestigious 10th Annual Siemens Awards for Advanced Placement [science and math courses] for the 2007–2008 school year. His high scores and high number of courses taken garnered him accolades and a scholarship. He also participated and ranked as a semifinalist in several other prestigious activities, among them: the highly competitive Intel Talent Search; the Siemens Research Competition; and the United States Physics Olympiad.
 
The list of recognition he’s received also includes his participation in the Research Science Institute and both the USA Biology Olympiad and the United States National Chemistry Olympiad. Continuing in this pattern of uber achievement, Ashutosh has also participated in the Jersey Shore Science Fair and was part of the team that won second place at the M3Challenge with their most topical and important paper that looked into the “Costs of Ethanol.”
 
Ashutosh has been assisting with research (for a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA) on neuron connectivity in the brain, and has submitted his work to several of the aforementioned competitions. One might think that would pretty much fill a young teen’s days, but not so with Ashutosh. He also runs cross-country track, is Editor-in-Chief of his school newspaper, and plays the clarinet!
 
Living in Holmdel spent some time talking with this astonishingly accomplished young man about his awards, research, and interests.
 
 
LIH: Let’s start with the basics. How old are you, and where do you go to school?
 
AS: I’m 17 and go to Holmdel High School.
 
 
LIH: We’re aware of your accomplishments and awards in math and science. Can you share some information on each, such as the activity, your involvement in it, and the various criteria for each?
 
AS: There is the Siemens’ Award for Advanced Placement (AP). That award is given to one male and one female in the nation with the most number of fives on the math and science APs.
 
LIH: How many did you take?
 
AS: All of them – all eight mathematics and sciences.
 
 
LIH: So you won for the whole nation?
 
AS: Yes.
 
 
LIH: How did you find out about this? Do you have to apply to participate, or do they just contact you through the college board?
 
AS: There is no specific application. I got contacted by them. They told me I had won something. Then, in December I was notified that I won for the whole nation. You have winners in each state and then the national winner.
 
 
LIH: Congratulations! So that was for AP’s taken during your junior year. Did you have any left to take during your senior year?
 
 
AS: Actually, yes (laughs). That was for the math and sciences. I took AP courses in other subject areas in senior year.
 
 
LIH: Can you elaborate on the Intel Science Talent Search?
 
AS: That one is a research-based one. They select around 200 semi-finalists from the whole nation. It is given based on a research project that you have done. You submit that with other math and science things you have done during high school. There is an actual application process for that.
 
 
LIH: What was your research project?
 
AS: It was computational neuroscience. I don’t know how to really explain it in lay terms.
 
 
LIH: Well, broadly, what does it deal with?
 
AS: It deals with a new way of determining connections between two specific neurons, done in a computational way rather than looking at it as they actually form.
 
 
LIH: Where do you get your numbers from?
 
AS: Basically you have the approximate structure of the neurons. So, you can create a computational model of the two neurons and you run a program. You look at the segments where they come close and you give a certain score. Basically, you investigate the chance that those two neurons will have an interconnection with each other.
 
 
LIH: What would the application of that information be?
 
AS: The application would be, well…certain diseases cause the break- down of those neural connections, so it could cause an easier way to see where that exactly happens. Also, there are certain points during the development of the brain during which connections are not actually formed at this point, but they have a certain chance of forming the connections. So that is more significant then.
 
 
LIH: So that study helps in understanding what the connections are. Would the next step then be a way to manipulate it, or is it just to understand the process?
 
AS: Yeah, it is used to understand it, which can be used to understand what happens in diseases like Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s.
 
 
LIH: Why did you choose that area to study, have you a special interest in that area?
 
AS: I went to a research-camp-type-thing last summer. It was at a science institute where I am going to college next year. So I got paired up with a professor who is working in that overall field. We just talked about certain problems in that field and decided that would be good to study.
 
 
LIH: You are also a National Merit Scholar finalist. How do you get that distinction? Is it through testing?
 
AS: Yes. In the PSATs if you get above a certain score you can become a semi-finalist. After that they have an application process to become a finalist.
 
 
LIH: You were also a United States Physics semifinalist. Can you tell us more about that?
 
AS: The United States Physics Olympiad is a series of tests that are given. They are physics tests that are on many levels. There is an open test, then there is the quarterfinals, then there is the semifinals with about 200 to 250 kids. After that, they select around 20 finalists to go to the camp that is the U.S. Physics Team.
 
 
LIH: How did you get involved with that?
 
AS: My school does a whole lot of competitions, so that is how I became involved.
 
 
LIH: And the USA Biology Olympiad…can you share more about that?
 
AS: I did that last year. It is the same setup as the physics one. But they only have an open test and a semifinalist test. Like the top 5% in the nation.
 
 
LIH: Then I guess the United States Chemistry Olympiad follows the same format.
 
AS: I did that also last year. For that one, they have certain regions that they break the country into. You take a test through your school and then you place within your region, and then you take a test for the whole nation.
 
 
LIH: Do you have a more competitive application pool for the contests in your region? For instance, the college application process in this area is much more rigorous than other regions, is it the same in these competitions?
 
AS: A lot of them are nationally based, like the physics one. Some are regional and it is somewhat harder.
 
 
LIH: You also participated in the M3Challenge. Can you elaborate on what that is?
 
AS: Yes. The M3Challenge is run through Moody’s Corporation. I don’t know if you have heard of them; they are a Wall Street-type company. They run a math competition, in which you get into a group of three to five people from your school. On one random day they pick a date and they give you a problem at 7 AM…you have 14 hours to work on it and you submit an actual write up of your answer by 9 PM that day.
 
 
LIH: So they give you the topic? You walk in blind and they say, “Research topic A, B, C” and you get to work?
 
AS: Yes. The problems are not strict math problems. This year’s problem was on the cost of ethanol.
 
 
LIH: What did you discover about the cost of ethanol?
 
AS: Basically, we discovered that it had certain hidden costs and would not be as great a fuel source as many people thought or currently think that it should be.
 
 
LIH: What were some of those hidden costs?
 
AS: Grain prices can go up a whole lot, and the cost of farmland. That is the main problem. That can cause world problems.
 
 
LIH: How did you come to that conclusion? Is it mainly math or is it current events? Do you use the math then try to find real-world examples or do you use the real-world components and apply mathematical quantification to the variables?
 
AS: Basically, you use certain real-world topics so you find data for those and then try to apply some kind of math to that to show how those numbers will change 5 or 10 years from now.
 
 
LIH: You also participated in the Jersey Shore Science Fair. Can you share more on that activity?
 
AS: That was another science fair with the same research project that I did for Intel – computational neuroscience. The Jersey Shore is a “close-by” research science fair. After that I qualified to be in the Delaware Valley Science Fair.
 
 
LIH: What kinds of things do you do for the science fairs? Do you present the papers, research?
 
AS: Yes, you have a poster, and people come by and you present your work to them. They then give you scores.
 
 
LIH: Are there any kind of symposiums or sharing that goes on?
 
AS: Yeah, yeah, all the posters are in the same room. After the people come by to give you scores, everyone walks around and talks about the various entries.
 
 
LIH: What other activities are you involved in? Are there other science things that I have not mentioned?
 
AS: I think you have most of the science stuff down. Siemens also has a research competition. So I was a semifinalist for that.
 
 
LIH:  What did you do for that?
 
AS: It was the same research project. That was in October. I have been working on it since then, so when I submitted it in October; it had my additional work in it.
 
 
LIH: Did you place in that one?
 
AS: I was a semifinalist in that one.
 
 
LIH: Are there other activities in which you are involved?
 
AS: Activities that are not math and science?
 
 
LIH: Yes, unless there are other math and sciences that you want to discuss.
 
AS: I run cross-country and track. I didn’t do it this past spring, but I did do track for the past 3 1/2 years. I do newspaper at my school. I am Editor-in-Chief of the newspaper. Those are the two main activities that I focus my time on.
 
 
LIH: What events do you participate in...in cross-country and track?
 
AS: In cross-country I do 5K runs. Our team was sectional champions last fall. I was sixth man on the team.
 
 
LIH: How long have you been involved in that?
 
AS: Since high school.LIH: Do you think you will continue with it in college?
 
AS: Currently I
think so, but I will see. It takes a lot of time.
 
 
LIH: At the newspaper, what are your duties as editor?
 
AS: As Editor-in-Chief I edit articles, get each issue out, talk to younger writers about how their articles are and how to make them better.
 
 
LIH: Have you ever written for the paper yourself?
 
AS: Yes, I spent my first 2 years on the paper [doing] writing.
 
 
LIH: How many issues do you publish in a year?
 
AS: I think we have six issues.
 
 
LIH: How much time do you have to put into that?
 
AS: It takes a good amount of time (laughs).
 
 
LIH: Any other interests in or out of school?
 
AS: I play the clarinet in the New Jersey State Youth Orchestra (NJSYO).
 
 
LIH: How long have you been doing that?
 
AS: I have been playing since fourth grade. I played in my school bands until freshman year, but then the course did not fit in my schedule. So then I took it up outside of school.
 
 
LIH: So you still play in the NJSYO?
 
AS: Yes, I do.LIH: Where do you perform?
 
AS: [We perform] in places all over Monmouth County and Ocean County.
 
 
LIH: What made you pick the clarinet?
 
AS: It is a funny story actually. My mom wanted me to do band in fourth grade, so I just went into the teacher’s room. He had a clarinet available and asked me, “Do you want to play clarinet?” So I said, “Okay. Alright.” I have been playing it since then.
 
 
LIH: And, why did you choose running as your sport as opposed to…let’s say tennis?
 
AS: Actually, I did play tennis for a while, but the team was always hard to make. My mom suggested I should still try doing a sport, so basically she pushed me into doing running. But then she started hating it as I was spending so much time on it and she was concerned that it would not let me spend enough time on my school work. I don’t know why, but she was worried. So she has wanted me to quit the past 3 1/2 years, and that was after her wanting me to do a sport (laughs)! It was good advice though. I like running.
 
 
LIH: So, what are your future plans?
 
AS: I am going to MIT.
 
 
LIH: Do you know what your major is yet?
 
AS: I actually don’t know. Math is possible. They have an EECS major (electrical engineering and computer science), so that is another possibility. Those are the two main fields that I think I might go into.
 
 
LIH: What appeals to you about those fields?
 
AS: Math. I have always liked it because it is the root of everything; because everything has math in it and it has applications in everything you do. If you do math you can use it in so many different fields.
 
 
LIH: Such as?
 
AS: Economics, like for that project that I did…also physics and biology.
 
 
LIH: Do you have any summer plans before you start college?
 
AS: I have an internship at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Maryland. It is like a research internship.
 
 
LIH: What kind of things will you be doing?
 
AS: Computer security. Interesting stuff.
 
 
LIH: Is there anything else you can tell us that would help complete the picture of Ashutosh Singhal?
 
AS: Hmm…I don’t know.  I just do a lot of things that normal kids do – watch TV, waste time doing whatever.
 
 
LIH: Do you have any leaning to what you want to be when you “grow up”?
 
AS: Research is definitely something that I want to do. But I am not sure I want to do that right out of college. Possibly some sort of hedge fund type of company; they have a whole lot of math there. Medicine also interests me. But, they are kind of opposite interests. I really don’t know yet which way I want to go.
 
 
LIH: Well, your past record of achievement, I am sure whatever path you choose you will be most successful! Thanks for your time, and good luck in college.
 
AS: Thank you.  

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