Akshath Sharma, a student from VIT University, Vellore, has done India proud by becoming the only student from the country to bag the prestigious Cambridge International Scholarship. He has been offered to complete a direct PhD in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, starting this Michaelmas Term 2015.
“The scholarshipis offered to approximately 80 students, who are selected based on academic merit ,” says Sharma. He is the only Indian to have been inducted directly after his B.Tech, with the requirement of a Masters degree waived. He has been awarded full-funding, under the aegis of the Cambridge International Scholarship.
Dr Satyajit Ghosh, Senior Professor, School of Mechanical and Building Sciences (SMBS), taught and mentored Akshath, guiding him thought his final year thesis “A novel geo-engineering application to mitigate cyclones over the Bay of Bengal.”
'VIT allowed me to succeed'
Akshath secured the second rank in the BTech Mechanical Engineering programme year with a CGPA of 9.64. Akshath says the VITs Project Based Learning (under the FFCS scheme) enabled him to work on a research project a full year in advance culminating in the Final Year Project. “VIT gave me the complete freedom to choose whichever field I wanted to do research in from the first year itself. During my four years here I have worked on areas including materials science, fluid mechanics, heat and mass transfer and even atmospheric sciences. The fully flexible credit system within VIT allowed me to choose the professors I wanted study and work with, and the system of project based learning (PBL) courses allowed me to conduct research parallel to the conventionally taught courses,” he says.
Akshath was also led VIT’s Team Vimaanas project to international limelight in the USA. “I was a part of the team in my first year itself. My time there engendered the confidence in me to successfully compete with teams from some of the best universities in world by the virtue of participating the in competition - SAE Aero Design West. It also allowed me to interact with some of the best and brightest students within VIT itself,” he says.
'Looking to complete thesis on time'
The brilliant student says, “I don't really know what to expect from Cambridge! Right now I just want to finish my PhD within the stipulated time of three years (as opposed to the usual 5 in other universities). What makes this more challenging is that I will be joining as a direct PhD candidate (without a Masters degree),” he says, adding that he plans to continue academic research after his time at Cambridge.
Congratulating the student, VIT University founder-chancellor Dr G Viswanathan said that Akshath’s achievement had not only made India proud but VIT University too. “This shows that not only are we a few steps away from getting into the top 100 ranks in the global world university rankings, but also that we can produce students who abilities are on par with what is expected at Cambridge. We hope to produce many more such students who will scale greater heights,” he said.