Wesley Cai 21W0.

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Born in the digital age of the twenty-first century, Amartya Shankha Biswas, like many other young aspired and ambitious Indian men, has developed a respectable interest for math and computer science for many years. He was born in October 29th 1995 at Kharapur, a blooming industrial town in the Paschim district of West Bengal. Of the many interesting topics in computer science, Amartya chose to be a theorist, someone who refines computer languages as well as solving mathematical problems in algorithm. For this reason, Amartya felt strongly compelling to solve the famous millennium problem in the theoretical computing world, the PNP problem. Amartya was first introduced to math by his father who is an instructor at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharapur. Amartya worked with various problems in elementary and classical mathematics throughout his childhood and early adolescent. When being asked what special about math that captured his soul almost immediately after the first time they interact with each other, his answer is very simple: Cause nothing in school, at least at the elementary level, can be as complex and non-repetitive like math. When thinking of math, people often think of the image of someone holding a calculator surrounded by papers that filled with numbers. One might think how on earth there is someone who willing to devote his life to such a boring thing. However, that image is completely opposite of what a mathematician or amateur who are doing real math. When talking about discrete number, math might seem to be redundant when all one does is plug and chug. But, math is not about that. Math is about figuring out the general solutions or all the solutions. It is about figuring the patterns that nature hide from us and communicate it using a set of symbols. That kind of math is often referred to as proof whose main purpose is to ask one to prove that a particular observation or conclusion is correct using a set of established conditions or proven postulates. This is the math that Amartya is attracted to. This kind of problems in math unlike regular plug-and-chug kind of problems does not have one particular way of solving and allows the one who do them to fully use their creativity to accomplish the task. Amartya was attracted to this property of proof and that was why he chose to investigate and constantly practice to improve his skills in math, especially in algebra which explain for his later interest for computer science.

During his high school, Amartyas dad taught him how to program simple things to give him a taste of what computer science is like. Amartya loved it. He spent hours for programming to develop the experience as well as the intuition needed to be a good programmer. At toughly the same time, he met a senior in his high school, an accomplished programmer, who was in the National Informatics Olympiad team. He exposed Amartya to the world of informatics and encrouraged Amartya to take part in the competition as a way to learn more advanced materials since the competition would allow Amartya to not only compete against the best in his country but also the world! With his strong foundation in math, Amartya quickly grasped the concepts and principles of algorithm as well as mastered them to a good extent which allowed him to win the bronze medal in the International Informatics Olympiad competition. He said that mathematics is really cool but at the end of the day you dont really know what to do with them since you have to find a field to apply those math skills into and computer science is the most direct field in which mathematics in everywhere, especially Amartya has a strong interest for algorithm which developed from the fundamentals theorems of algebra. After his exposure to algorithm, Amartya quickly realized the importance of solving the fundamental problems of computing, and one of them, namely the PvNP problem is what puzzled the mind of the young scientist the most. In a nut shell, PvNP problem is asking whether given that a problem can be quickly verified by a computer also mean that the problem can be quickly solved by a computer. Unlike many mathematicians or scientists, Amartya does not feel compelling in developing practical applications for his theoretical work because he believes in the intrinsic value that every discovery has regardless of what the societys perception of its value. Though he does recognize the importance of developing practical applications for his discovery as he said a discovery would not be respected by the people if it has no particular application. This is also one of the reason why he chose to investigate more about PvNP. Amartya said that it would be very amazing to know the result regardless of whether it will prove or disprove the statement because many problems in computing can essentially be simplified to a great extent if one knows the result of PvNP. Additionally, artificial intelligence, game theory, mathematics, and cryptography would also be strongly affected by the implications of the solution to PvNP. In order to further pursue this interest, he is considering of pursuing a double major in math and computer science at MIT with a very strong focus in theoretical computing. Currently, he is taking lots of challenging classes with that focus in theoretical mathematics

which has direct applications to computer science. In addition, he is looking for a research position to develop some original ideas as well as develop practical researching skills. With his passion and capability it is no doubt that he will become much more knowledgeable and accomplish greats things in his field.