Aagnik N. Pant is a 17 year old young scientist from Oakville, Ontario. He recently graduated from Abbey Park High School, obtaining his Ontario Secondary School Diploma and a French certificate. His interest in science sparked early with a desire to understand how technology works. Technological marvels like phone wires carrying sound, and the Internet always managed to catch his interest. Meanwhile, Aagnik began to realise the importance of protecting the environment, and he saw the role technology could play in this task.
When he discovered his area’s regional fair, the Bay Area Science and Engineering Fair, Aagnik knew he wanted his science research to be impactful. In 2014, pairing with his lab partner, Nart Barileva, from his computer engineering class, Aagnik embarked on a project to improve the production of biofuels from non-food based plants. The two partners took their research to the regional science fair where they earned a gold medal and numerous awards, including a trip to the Canada Wide Science Fair. With this success under their belts, they did further experimentation at McMaster University, where they verified their data. Confident of their experimental results, Aagnik and Nart competed in the 2014 Canada-Wide Science Fair, held in Windsor, Ontario. Here, they earned a silver medal in the senior division and scholarships.
What Aagnik enjoyed most about the science fair is the friendships he made. The Canada-Wide Science Fair was a unique opportunity to meet other individuals who are equally passionate about science—though this was only his first year competing, Aagnik is glad to have had the chance to attend.
Aside from the science fair, Aagnik enjoys programming. He established a computer science club in his school to help students prepare for the University of Waterloo’s Canadian Computing Competition. Aagnik believes programming is an essential tool to have, and will continue to program as well as encourage others to program in university. Aagnik also loves doing graphic design. Taking this interest, he functioned as the Brand Manager, and, for a brief period of time, the Director of Marketing, at the Organization of Ontario Secondary Students, a grassroots student movement founded to voice student opinion in political issues. Additionally, Aagnik tenured the head role in his school’s magazine, where he practiced his writing, editing and layout design skills. Of all his interests, Aagnik’s greatest passion is teaching. This can be seen through both his daily actions and his involvement in his school’s Tutoring Club. Not only does Aagnik love to teach but he also loves to learn. Aagnik is convinced that it is only through this exchange of information that we can achieve progress in society; if everyone is willing to learn new things and teach what they know, there is no ends to what we can achieve.
For his future, Aagnik hopes to combine his love of teaching with his interest in research to become a professor. For the foreseeable future, however, Aagnik is enrolled at McGill University for Fall 2014, where he will pursue a B.Eng in Electrical Engineering and a minor in Biotechnology. He hopes to take what he learns and continue to protect the environment. And he couldn’t be more excited!
CWSF 2014 – Windsor, Ontario – Nart Barileva
Project link:
https://secure.youthscience.ca/virtualcwsf/projectdetails.php?id=3856&year=&province=&keyword=&name=Aag&categoryid=&divisionid=&challengeid=®ionid=
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