At 18, he helps US Army with unique infrared detector

From inventing low-cost devices to innovative ways of helping make math and science easy for students, meet three Indian Americans pushing the boundaries.

In the first part of a three-part series beginning today, Suman Guha Mozumder speaks to 18-year old Saumil Bandyopadhyay who was named a recipient of the second annual American Ingenuity Awards by Smithsonian magazine, the flagship publication of Smithsonian Media, for a unique, sensitive infrared radiation detector.

MIT freshman Saumil Bandyopadhyay was named a recipient of the second annual American Ingenuity Awards by Smithsonian magazine, the flagship publication of Smithsonian Media, for a unique, sensitive infrared radiation detector that promises to be inexpensive and has scientific, civilian and military applications.

The device being developed by Saumil, 18, has already attracted the interest of the United States Army, which has taken him to work in one of its engineering laboratories.

Saumil is one of the 10 groundbreaking individuals honoured with the American Ingenuity Awards across categories including technology, performing and visual arts, natural and physical sciences, education, historical scholarship, social progress and youth achievement.

The honourees were recognised at an awards gala at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC, November 19; in Smithsonian magazines special Ingenuity Awards December issue; and on Smithsonian.com.

While their work is different in objective, each winner is embracing the Smithsonians mission to increase knowledge and shape the world of tomorrow, Michael Caruso, editor in chief, Smithsonian magazine, was quoted as saying.

As a toddler, Saumil used to be taken to his father Supriyo Bandyopadhyays office in the Virginia Commonwealth University, where the elder Bandyopadhyay has been a professor of electrical engineering and computer engineering.

As a 2-year-old, even before he could speak, Saumil started doing additions and subtractions with apples or tennis balls, his father said.

He skipped developmental stages in the sense he started from sitting to standing and then walking. He never crawled, Bandyopadhyay said, recalling that his sons childhood development was in fits and starts.

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At 18, he helps US Army with unique infrared detector