Global Indianstory Global Indian ExclusiveKaavya Kopparapu: On a mission to transform healthcare with AI

Kaavya Kopparapu: On a mission to transform healthcare with AI

Compiled by: Team GI Youth

(November 5, 2024) In a small clinic in India, Kaavya Kopparapu watched her grandfather struggle with diabetic retinopathy, an eye condition that can lead to blindness if left untreated. The waiting rooms were crowded, the equipment was outdated, and specialists were scarce. Observing the challenges her grandfather faced just to receive a diagnosis, Kaavya, then only a teenager, began to see how her love for science could make a difference. She wanted to address the limited access to healthcare that millions in rural and underserved areas endure. Driven by this purpose, she invented Eyeagnosis, a smartphone app that uses AI to detect signs of diabetic retinopathy from retinal images. Designed for affordability and accessibility, Eyeagnosis offered a way for local clinicians to catch early signs of vision impairment and refer patients for treatment. “The lack of diagnosis is the biggest challenge. In India, there are programmes that send doctors into villages and slums, but there are a lot of patients and only so many ophthalmologists. What if there was a cheap, easy way for local clinicians to find new cases and refer them to a hospital?” the Global Indian said in an interview.

Kavya Kopparapu

This early project set Kaavya on a path of innovation that would soon lead her to tackle one of medicine’s toughest challenges: brain cancer. In 2017, when she was still in high school, she read about US Senator John McCain’s battle with glioblastoma, an aggressive and nearly untreatable form of brain cancer. She was shocked to learn that despite decades of research and advancements in medicine, glioblastoma patients’ prognosis had barely improved in 30 years, with most surviving only eleven months post-diagnosis. Kaavya was taken aback. “To me, that was really surprising because we know so much more about the brain now, and we have so many improved chemotherapy and surgery techniques. It blew my mind that, despite all of that, we haven’t gotten any better at improving patient quality of life and prognosis,” the Harvard educated said.

The Power of AI: Introducing GlioVision

Inspired, Kaavya developed GlioVision, a groundbreaking AI-powered system that analyses brain tumor images to predict the genetic profile of glioblastomas in seconds. Unlike traditional methods that can take days and cost thousands, GlioVision delivers its predictions with 100 percent accuracy and at a fraction of the cost. Kaavya explained, “Around 40 percent of glioblastoma patients have a genetic mutation that renders the standard treatment completely ineffective. So, these patients receive all the negative side effects of chemotherapy without any of the benefits of the treatment. That shows why genetic testing is so important.”

The impact of GlioVision was profound, earning Kaavya prestigious accolades, including the 2018 Davidson Institute for Talent Development Scholar Laureate, finalist status in the Regeneron Science Talent Search, and recognition as a U.S. Presidential Scholar. TIME magazine even included her in its 2018 list of “25 Most Influential Teens.” Now, Kaavya is a research engineer at DeepMind, Google’s AI research lab, where she continues pushing the boundaries of healthcare technology.

Her passion for science ignited in middle school when she witnessed two scientists conduct an elephant toothpaste experiment at a science fair. “Basically, it’s when two chemicals are poured into a beaker together, and you get this giant column of foam that shoots up through the reaction. Seeing that as a sixth-grader, I was like, ‘Woah, that’s cool. I want to do stuff like that as a job,'” she recalled in an interview. This was the start of her journey into the world of STEM, where her love for engineering blossomed and she began to realise its potential to create meaningful change in people’s lives.

Yet, Kaavya’s journey is not just about personal achievement—it’s also a reflection of the impact that young members of the Indian diaspora are making in the US. With over four million members in the US, the Indian diaspora has been instrumental in driving innovations that address pressing global issues. And Kaavya stands out as a role model who represents the determination and creativity that are common in her community. By addressing the problems of glioblastoma and diabetic retinopathy, Kaavya is helping future generations of Indian Americans to explore careers in STEM fields and make a positive impact in both India and the US.

Championing Diversity: The Girls Computing League

In addition to her groundbreaking research, Kaavya is committed to promoting inclusivity in technology through her work with the Girls Computing League, a nonprofit she co-founded. Dedicated to empowering girls and students from low-income backgrounds, it aims to increase diversity in the tech field by providing access to advanced computer science education. “We’re really focused on teaching emerging technology to students across the world,” she states. The organization has made remarkable strides, operating in 15 U.S. states and even extending its reach to Japan. By organizing coding clubs, AI conferences, and teacher development workshops, the Girls Computing League encourages young minds to explore the potential of technology and innovation. “Being able to directly interface with the people that I’m impacting at our events has been amazing. They’re the whole reason that I do it.”

Kavya’s journey from a concerned granddaughter in India to a pioneering innovator in the U.S. exemplifies the transformative power of science and compassion. Her groundbreaking work in AI-driven healthcare not only addresses critical issues like glioblastoma and diabetic retinopathy but also serves as an inspiration for young people, particularly within the Indian diaspora, to engage in STEM fields.

Follow Kavya Kopparapu on Linkedin and Twitter

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Published on 05, Nov 2024

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Pepper Content: How 23-year-old Anirudh Singla built one of India’s largest content platforms

(March 5, 2024) Back in 2020, Anirudh Singla, like his classmates, went around with butterflies in his stomach during interview season. The only difference was that his classmates were giving interviews to get placed, while Anirudh Singla was preparing to conduct them. Anirudh Singla, Rahul Mathur and Kishan Panpalia were engineering students at BITS-Pilani, and, at the same time running a company that had generated Rs 1.25 crore in revenue by the time they graduated. They are the co-founders of Pepper Content and today, their clientele includes Google, Amazon, HUL, Facebook, and P&G, to name a few, as they on-board over 100 companies every month. Some three years after the Global Indians founded Pepper Content, the company was growing at 15 percent every month, and had received funding from Lightspeed Venture Partners, one of the world's top VC firms. Theirs is a fairytale story created through good old pragmatic hardwork, persistence, failure and determination. Young and driven to entrepreneurship It all started when Anirudh Singla decided he wanted to fund his own graduation. At BITS Pilani, he realised he was surrounded by 900 students who were as smart, if not smarter than he was and he wanted to stand out.

At BITS Pilani, he realised he was surrounded by 900 students who were as smart, if not smarter than he was and he wanted to stand out. "The one thing I was good at was writing," he said in an interview. He had also grown up in an entrepreneurial household, and seen his father build a $100 million business from the ground up. Singla knew about the importance of the hustle and the grind and got to work. He found a small digital marketing agency that needed 250 articles of 500 words each on car parts. "We quoted 75 paisa per word, which is around Rs 375 per article. However, the customer insisted on 10 paisa per word - you can't outsource it at that rate, no writer will agree. But we wanted a statistical advantage and we were just starting out so we negotiated it to 15 paisa per word," Anirudh recalls.

At the time, they were in the middle of exam season but Anirudh was determined to meet his goal of Rs 2.5 lakh in the next two months. He, along with Mathur and Panpalia, would write till 5 am, sleep for a couple of hours and then head out at 8 am to write their exam. After two weeks of this, they earned Rs 16,500. "It was a great feeling to have," Anirudh says.

Similarly, Panpalia had also arrived at BITS with big dreams and an entrepreneurial drive. Born in a tier-3 city named Akola in Maharashtra, Panpalia had made his first profit in the ninth grade, when he bought five kilos of produce, and sold it when the price was higher Rs 50 per kilo. "Those few hundreds I earned ignited the entrepreneur in me," he says. He would spend his time reading inspiring stories of young entrepreneurs who had made it big and like most ambitious Indian teens, wanted to make it to an IIT. He wrote the exam and was admitted to BITS Pilani, which he describes as the best thing that ever happened to him. "I entered college in 2019 and in the first year, like any tier-3 student, the first three months were bizarre. I was in a new world, full of new people and I was sure I didn't belong." He put himself out there anyway, joining entrepreneurial cells and clubs, where he happened to meet Anirudh Singla, who was just starting Pepper Content.

The cold-calling method

They built their company through cold calls and cold-emails, weeding through hundreds of rejections - not only were they very young, they were also engineering students with no experience in content. They cold called 50,000 people, and cold-emailed 10,000 others. "We didn't know the right way, so we cold called," said Panpalia. He put college on the backburner to join "a company that was not even a company," he says. His friends and family advised him not to do it, saying he should at least finish his engineering first, and that he was too young for entrepreneurship. "But I took the plunge. We needed our first 100 customers and we didn't know how to get them."

So, they pooled in their resources. "Initially it was all about customer obsession," Singla says. "LinkedIn was my Instagram. We had class till 1 pm in my second year and during that time I would send 40-50 customised LinkedIn messages to marketing heads and CFOs and everyone. That's 1,200 messages per month." Colleges have marketing teams and databases, which they also used. They were doing upto seven hours per day of just cold calling. "I learned that consistency is very important, it always compounds," he says.

Pepper Content started out as an aggregator of sorts, linking talented content creators, graphics designers and later video editors with businesses. The pandemic helped grow their business, as the gig economy expanded with it and many professionals turned to freelance works instead of structured nine to gives. They offer video production, blog writing, whitepaper content, thought leadership content, subtitling, voiceovers and infographics. "Every company is a content company," Singla states. The idea, they say, is to ensure that companies have access to the 'top three percent of freelance talent' in a single platform. Today, their company is valued at over Rs 500 crores as the global content economy is valued at more than $400 billion.

The company, which is based in Mumbai and boasts some 1,50,000 creators and 2,500 business clients, also has a library that includes blogs on content marketing and technology and how to stay ahead of the curve, case studies about their customers, e-books and whitepapers on the latest trends and marketing insights. On the SaaS side of things, they have now launched an AI co-pilot for enterprise marketers.

The AI platform

"The future isn't just AI or human intelligence, it's AI + human intelligence," Singla told Forbes. Rather than seeing AI language models like Chat GPT as a threat to businesses like his, he believes they will only help them. As companies are now scaling up content requirements in a big way, the handful of writers and creators on marketing teams will now need a certain amount of automation.

Their platform will work on keyword research, identify the right creators for the job and use data analytics tools to assess the final product. "Every piece you publish should be more intelligent than the last one," he says. The AI platform will help with the biggest struggle for marketers - organic traffic and providing returns on investment. "It will help build an SEO content strategy, content operations, content analytics and distribution," Singla explains. "Every piece you publish should be more intelligent than the last one."

Follow Anirudh Singla on LinkedIn.

Across the metaverse: Chennai’s Sanchi Taleda one of 79 NFT artists to showcase her work at Times Square

(July 12, 2022) Sanchi Taleda was "beyond thrilled" and also, "a little confused," when she heard the news that her NFT was to be displayed in the Metaverse. Just like that, the 22-year-old artist found her name in lights, with her work, Quarter Past Midnight, splashed across a Times Square billboard on June 19, the opening night of NFT.NYC. She's one of 79 artists (and one of the youngest of the lot) from around the world to have their work showcased on the first night of the week-long event. [caption id="attachment_19157" align="aligncenter" width="604"] Quarter Past Midnight, by Sanchi Taleda. Photo credit: Instagram[/caption] A dose of (augmented) reality For one week, the young NFT artist was given access to cryptovoxels.com, one of the largest and most popular metaverse spaces. "It was very intimidating," she tells Global Indian. "I was one of the youngest artists among a group of people who had massive fan bases. I was wondering how I fit in there, to be honest, but it was an amazing experience." After the billboard display, her work was showcased at a virtual gallery, at an exhibition titled 'Figureglyphs', which dealt with artistic interpretations of the human body. "It was an augmented

midating," she tells Global Indian. "I was one of the youngest artists among a group of people who had massive fan bases. I was wondering how I fit in there, to be honest, but it was an amazing experience." After the billboard display, her work was showcased at a virtual gallery, at an exhibition titled 'Figureglyphs', which dealt with artistic interpretations of the human body. "It was an augmented reality setup, where people could walk (physically) through Times Square and use their phones to enter virtual galleries in the Metaverse.”

Where it began

It all began with a Discord group, where "they had put out a search for artists," she recalls. The young NFT artist had just begun sharing her work on Opensea, when she stumbled upon a call for artists put out by SearchLight.Art. To her, the chances of being accepted seemed so remote that Sanchi, acting almost on a whim, sent out a piece of work she had already completed. "Here I was, trying to understand how NFTs work and suddenly, I'm part of a gallery in the Metaverse and being told my art would be on a billboard in Times Square."

Back in 2020, Sanchi, who will graduate soon from the Measi Academy of Architecture, was given an iPad to help her with college assignments. "Instead, I got into digital illustrations," she says. "It was just fun for me, a break from college." She began researching NFTs and wondered if she could enter the space herself. She pleaded with her brother to get her a crypto wallet - "He did, but only after I had done my research," she laughs.

Seeking magic in the mundane

"Where do I find inspiration? It happens when I go walking through the streets, that inspires me the most," Sanchi says. An experienced swimmer, Sanchi walks to the pool every day, soaking in the countless, poignant vignettes that make up everyday life on the bustling streets of an Indian city. "One day, for instance, I saw a man yawning to himself and scratching his head. It was such a busy road but he was lost in his own world. It made me wonder what his life is like, what he has been through."

[caption id="attachment_19160" align="aligncenter" width="521"] Photo credit: Instagram[/caption]

The ideas take seed, she says, when she's actually in the pool, swimming. "That's my time to take stock of what I have seen, to understand what has inspired me." Her art itself, however, is unplanned - she begins with an idea and let it take form. "I don't always know what it will turn out to be," Sanchi remarks. It's an advantage, she agrees, to being a digital artist working with a tool like ProCreate. Here, she has greater room for spontaneity, vastly different to conventional art where usually, everything is planned to the last detail before it makes it to the physical canvas. "I simply allow myself to draw and as I do, find different ways to build on it."

Unassuming and even a little reticent – Sanchi is not given to words, preferring to let her art speak for her. And it does. Her digital artwork, all done at home on her iPad, is reminiscent (although she doesn't intend it to be), of the Surrealists. She simply smiles at the reference - she's familiar with their work Sanchi does not borrow, her work as an artist is deeply introspective, taken from everyday scenes in the streets of Chennai, where she is based. "I want people to look at my work and go, 'but what is she thinking'? Everyone who looks at my art should interpret it differently." The NFT artist mentions digital creators like David Shrigley, who has a huge following on Instagram. Although their work is nothing alike, "he makes you think and that's what I want to do as an artist."

Breaking the norms of architecture – and art

[caption id="attachment_19163" align="aligncenter" width="494"] Photo credit: Instagram[/caption]

Now in her final year at Measi, Sanchi has created for herself a way to think in abstract terms, producing work that is very removed from the conventional approach. Her friends, she says, became used to her huddling in a corner and scribbling away - "They all know I'm a little different," she smiles. "I would spend my days scribbling my own drawings instead of actually listening in class." She shied away from "the usual rectangles, squares and boxy designs," preferring to work with shapes like triangles. "My professor would ask me, 'How do you even think this way'? It took some convincing but, in the end, he told me that he likes my designs the best." At home, however, there is no need for convincing - her father, she says, is her biggest fan. "He even comes up with names for my work."

Sanchi, who is even toying with the idea of being an architect in the Metaverse, where she can give her abstract thinking full rein, intends to do her master's degree in the UK. It's the only place "which offers courses that bridge art and architecture. I want to be at that intersection."

Follow Sanchi on Instagram, Twitter and check out her work on Opensea.io

Reading Time: 6 min

Simar Khurana: The youngest video game developer to claim Guinness World Record glory

(September 15, 2023) Indian origin Simar Khurana, a six-year-old from Beamsville, Ontario, Canada, has created a Guinness World Record becoming world's youngest video game developer - an impressive feat she accomplished at the young age of six years and 335 days. What makes her achievement even more special is her remarkable ability to create a video game that not only provides entertainment but also imparts a message about the importance of adopting healthy eating habits. Her game, aptly named ‘Junk Food vs Healthy Food,’ not only entertains but also educates young players about making nutritious food choices. The student of Jacobs Beam Public School is not only a coding prodigy but also a versatile child with a passion for maths, art, gymnastics, and dance. Simar finds support in her family and the entire school that was cheering when she made the record. She showcases her expertise on her YouTube channel, ‘Simars World’. [caption id="attachment_33076" align="aligncenter" width="544"] Simar Khurana[/caption] Girls are no less than boys Simar’s father Paras Khurana, an HR professional, told Global Indian, “I have two daughters. Simar is the second one, and when she was born, a few people expressed sympathy and were rueful that I was blessed

e channel, ‘Simars World’.

[caption id="attachment_33076" align="aligncenter" width="544"] Simar Khurana[/caption]

Girls are no less than boys

Simar’s father Paras Khurana, an HR professional, told Global Indian, “I have two daughters. Simar is the second one, and when she was born, a few people expressed sympathy and were rueful that I was blessed with another girl. They told me to try for a boy. Simar’s achievements are like a slap on their face.”

Talking about the Guinness Book rules he says, “Guinness recognises two categories for the youngest video game developer - one for males and one for females. Simar qualified for the female category. However, if there would have been an open competition, she would have excelled regardless. Sadly, there still appears to be a bias favouring boys over girls.”

Simar is ‘super excited and grateful to be a world record holder’. While her father shared, “the process was very lengthy and exhaustive. It took almost three months to verify and validate.”

Discovering the talent

Simar began her coding journey just this year when her parents recognised her exceptional aptitude for coding, mathematics and doing things creatively. They decided to enrol her in a coding class.

“Such is her creativity that she can create something great out of simple things, and I realised that with her talent for maths and coding she can be a good video game developer,” said her father.

What started as a single class per week soon escalated to three classes, and eventually, Simar dedicated herself to five coding classes weekly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkDujfmrI3U&t=39s

Simar's inspiration for her game promoting healthy food choices stemmed from a visit to her family doctor, who emphasised the significance of maintaining a balanced diet. This conversation with her doctor left a mark on the impressionable mind of the six-year-old, sparking her interest in the consequences of consuming junk food and the importance of making healthier choices.

Driven by her newfound knowledge, Simar embarked on her video game journey to transform the perspective of children her age in a fun manner.

Hiccups along the way

When Simar's parents began searching for a place to provide her with coding training, they explored several options. However, they encountered a common response: "She's too young. Most children are just beginning to learn to read and write. Developing a game would be quite challenging." Many institutions recommended that they introduce her to coding when she is at least eight to 10-year-old.

However, looking at their child’s ability her parents knew that she has an extraordinary potential as at such a young age Simar can also solve mathematics problems meant for grade three kids. After trying at many places they finally found an institute that agreed to enrol her.

That’s when her father started researching the world records in coding and found out that nobody has developed a full-fledged game at a young age. “I told Simar this and she got excited, ‘I want to make a world record,’ she said and began announcing to the whole family that she’s going to make a world record’,” Paras shares.

“Simar is hardworking and she did it pretty well for a six-year-old to go through five classes a week on coding and then spending a couple of hours every day on practising and doing projects,” he remarked.

[caption id="attachment_33082" align="aligncenter" width="563"] Simar Khurana[/caption]

What’s next?

The coder has graduated to the next level of working into animations. She loves Roblox, an online game platform and game creation system developed by Roblox Corporation that allows users to programme games and play games created by other users. Down the line she aims to develop something even better than that.

Motivated by her accomplishments, the youngster is working on a more interactive and engaging game. She has a message for everyone – “Don’t eat junk food!”

Follow Simar Khurana on YouTube

Reading Time: 5 mins

Mangka Mayanglambam puts Manipuri folk music on world map

(May 7, 2023) When Mangka Mayanglambam, the world-famous Manipuri folk singer, formally started learning music as a nine-year-old, her guru was her grandmother, Oja Langathel Thoinu. Despite the family ties, the budding singer was given no extra privileges as a student, learning in a strict, guru-shishya atmosphere, just like her fellow pupils. Now the face of Manipuri folk music, Mangka has represented India on multiple platforms globally. With the international ongoing collaborative project ZIRO Focus (2020-2023), supported by British Council and Art Council of Wales, the folk singer has collaborated with Eadyth, an artist from Wales, England. They have created an NFT song RaRaReHei. [caption id="attachment_24694" align="aligncenter" width="651"] Mangka Mayanglambam[/caption] International collaboration The collaboration is part of ‘India-Wales, Connections through Culture’, a celebration of the long-standing relationship between the two countries on the occasion of India’s 75th Independence Day. Apart from creating the NFT, Mangka travelled to Britain as part of the bilateral cultural exchange to perform in some of the cities there. “The first time I represented India internationally was back in 2014 — I was selected to be at one of the world's biggest radio festivals in Colombo. That is an experience I will forever cherish,” she

nal collaboration

The collaboration is part of ‘India-Wales, Connections through Culture’, a celebration of the long-standing relationship between the two countries on the occasion of India’s 75th Independence Day. Apart from creating the NFT, Mangka travelled to Britain as part of the bilateral cultural exchange to perform in some of the cities there.

“The first time I represented India internationally was back in 2014 — I was selected to be at one of the world's biggest radio festivals in Colombo. That is an experience I will forever cherish,” she said.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yx0xGwRMGcw

Since then, the folk artist has travelled across the world, performing at premiere music festivals. She was awarded the national young artist scholarship award by the ministry of culture in 2017, and the national child talent scholarship award by CCRT, New Delhi in 2009. The Election commission of India selected the Global Indian as the state icon of Manipur in 2017.

Music in her blood

Born into a family of musicians, Mangka’s environment was full of music from the time she was born. Her father, Mangangsana, who is her biggest inspiration, is a renowned folk musician, a national award winner and a versatile artiste. Mangka was deeply influenced by music from the time she was a little girl, thanks to her grandma, who was her first teacher, her father, who trained her later and the artistes who would come home to learn and practice.

“I was not pushed into taking up music by my family, I chose it,” she said. “I urged my father to help me take my passion further by constantly trying to prove that I had potential,” she says, adding, “For this I participated in all the school and neighbourhood functions, without letting go of any chance to perform and impress my father.” Looking back, she is grateful to her father and grandma, for never having favoured or discriminated between her and their other students.

Manga completed her masters in sociology in 2020 and has been associated as a researcher with ‘Laihui Ensemble’, the centre for research on traditional and indigenous performing arts in Imphal. Her father has been the composer, and artistic director of the national and international programmes organised by the centre.

Setting new grounds

Since she was a kid, the folk artist has been singing the traditional songs that the family’s ancestors once sang. “I have grown up singing ‘Moirang Sai’ and ‘Pena Ishei’, which are ballads central to Manipuri folklore,” she revealed. The young artist also sings contemporary songs based on Manipur’s folk tunes that are composed and written by her father and other renowned lyricists.

The artist is a befitting example of Indian youth who are choosing folk music to express themselves and keeping their culture alive. The youth icon has always worked towards putting Manipuri folk music at the international map. “Folk music is a bridge between the past and the present and that’s why it’s so significant,” she said.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npdJ7adAk6Q

Mangka is the only female Pena (a Manipuri traditional fiddle instrument) player. She started learning how to play it from Padmashree Khangembam Mangi, when she was 13. “I also learned Hindustani Sangeet from Visharad Guru M. Jiten.” Another guru of hers, Langathel Thoinu helped her hone skills in Basok and Moirang Sai (a rare traditional female performing art), beginning her training before she hit her teens.

She learned Khongjom Parvah, a 130-year-old Manipuri ballad singing tradition from guru Khumantham Sundari. The ace performer has also learned Manipuri dance for years, earning the visharad (graduation degree) and has been a student of mime. All this extensive training makes her a riveting performer.

Preventing Manipuri folk art from getting extinct

Today the icon for the entire state of Manipur is an inspiration for children of the state who turn up to her for learning music. She has more than 300 students. Teaching is her way to preserve the folk art and counter the threat of it getting extinct by making the next generation equipped to take it further. “Being around children is something that I love a lot,” she says. It’s not just her music but the way she carries herself is something that adds to her huge fan base of youngsters who fondly call her the Princess of Manipuri Folk Music.

The young artist loves wearing traditional attire with the strong notion that in this time of modernisation, sticking to the roots is something that has added to her personality’s ‘unique brand quotient’. The singer has conducted many seminars, conferences and workshops. When she is abroad, she makes it a point to hold folk art sessions for children of Manipuri diaspora there.

She has also written a book of songs, ‘Langathel Thoinu’s Moirang Sai, Thoibi Loi Kaba.’ “It’s a gift for my guru ‘Langathel Thoinu’ and I would like to have an English translation for it,” she said. “I enjoy what I do and that is why it’s not hard for me to do so many things at the same time” she adds.

International collaborations and performances of Mangka Mayanglambam:

‘Asadoya Yunta – Singel’ – an international collaboration with Japanese artist Kazuki Oshiro with performances across Japan and India
‘Ingelehua – Two Cultures Entwined’ – a Manipuri and Hawaiin dance and music collaboration
Performance at Awa Kongchat a cultural exchange programme in Myanmar
‘Nura Pakhang’ - an international collaboration with Cla, the iconic Portuguese band
Performance at the Esplanade Festival, Singapore
'Shakuhachi meets Pena’ – a collaboration of Manipuri and Japanese traditional music

Follow Mangka Mayanglambam on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube

Reading Time: 5 mins

Entrepreneur Anshul Gupta is making therapy more accessible for autistic kids

(January 11, 2024) Even though one in every 100 children has autism, the disorder continues to be one of the most ignored medical conditions in the world. As the world grapples with the rise in cases and a severe lack of caregivers, an 18-year-old college student has become a beckon of hope for several autistic kids across the globe. Diana Award-winning Anshul Gupta has emerged as a trailblazing social entrepreneur, co-founding 'AUesome', a visionary social enterprise dedicated to breaking down barriers in autism therapy accessibility. A bachelor's student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Anshul aims to bridge the digital and physical world of at-home therapy for neurodiverse children. "Our mission is to make therapy accessible and affordable," explained the young entrepreneur, adding, "At AUesome we have iterated hundreds of kit designs, which include instructional videos, and apps that simplify the at-home therapy process for parents of children with special needs. We hope to eliminate the physical and financial barriers to receiving therapy." The impact of Anshul's innovative approach is already evident, with the AUesome team successfully designing and distributing 17,500 therapy resources to fulfill 550 kit requests globally. Everything Is AUesome Born and brought up in the lush green

and financial barriers to receiving therapy."

The impact of Anshul's innovative approach is already evident, with the AUesome team successfully designing and distributing 17,500 therapy resources to fulfill 550 kit requests globally.

Everything Is AUesome

Born and brought up in the lush green locality of San Jose, California, Anshul started volunteering at various organisations a quite a young age. An alumnus of Archbishop Mitty High School, the young entrepreneur was also the president of his school's Computer Science Club. It was, however, his personal experience of receiving therapy and working with neurodiverse individuals, that motivated Anshul to establish a company that uses technology to make educational and therapeutic resources more accessible to children with autism.

[caption id="attachment_35175" align="aligncenter" width="556"] Anshul delivering kits to elementary and KIPP schools[/caption]

Talking about the ground reality of autism, the entrepreneur said, "According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are one in 44 children having autism spectrum disorder in the US alone, and about half of those with severe ASD only have access to school-based treatment. Of these kids, about 17 percent have no access to any treatment whatsoever, with these numbers growing drastically. While I and a few of my classmates were working with individuals with special needs, we recognised the inaccessibility, lack of continuation, and low parental involvement for autism therapy services. And that is what became our motivation to establish AUesome."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OodlnvwI3Kg

So, what is it that AUesome does? "We improve upon existing therapeutic constraints by reimagining the therapy process through the utilisation of a therapy kit, augmented by a digital guidance platform and app," shared the entrepreneur, adding, "First, we curate clinically proven therapy tools and activities used by therapists – such as flashcards to train communication skills and clothespin activities for fine motor skills – into a therapy kit, delivered to parents and educators. Next, the kits are paired with an instructional platform, where parents can access guidance resources for each activity to educate themselves on how to conduct therapy with their child. Finally, after three iterations, we developed an accompanying app, which provides cognitive games and instructional videos that accompany the activities in the physical kit and recommends a daily schedule, quizzes, and ideas for customisation.

Road to expansion

The entrepreneur has distinguished his company through a unique pricing strategy. Rather than conforming to market trends, the company determines product prices through a combination of production costs and thorough market research. With costs as low as $10-15, AUesome provides an economical alternative to existing therapy systems, which can often demand upwards of a quarter-million dollars for individuals between birth and age 18.

[caption id="attachment_35176" align="aligncenter" width="552"] Fundraising initiative by AUesome[/caption]

"One of the key parts of our daily work is to receive user feedback. I believe they embrace both positive and negative input to improve our product continuously," shared the Global Indian, adding, "This market is worth $2.01 billion and is projected to grow 7.9 percent in the next couple of years. So, even from a business perspective, there is an emphasis on the importance of seizing opportunities as students and building a network of like-minded individuals who can support and contribute to their projects ensuring the sustainability of such innovative ideas."

Aside from therapy kits, AUesome has also initiated chapters. These chapters provide high school and college students with materials for leadership, networking, advocacy, and spreading awareness about neurodiversity and the necessity for therapy. So far, the organisation has 17 chapters around the globe. "We’re also hoping to expand more across the world through our global outreach initiative,” Anshul shared, "We’re currently working with the Brazilian government, Ukrainian hospitals, people in Canada, India, and beyond, to make a bigger impact beyond just in the United States.”

Follow Anshul Gupta on LinkedIn, GitHub, and his website

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