Jayden John Bose, 14 from Wayanad in Kerala, stopped attending school after class 8 and is doing research for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) of the USA on artificial intelligence with a scholarship of Rs 70 lakh.
In fact, he is one among the mere 10 researchers around the world and the only person from India engaged in the studies which are exploring how artificial intelligence could be utilized for diagnosing cancer.
Jayden's expertise in using computers has indeed created magic in his life. In fact, the youngster logs on the computer and is online during the night hours to attend the classes of MIT and carry out related work. As it was difficult to attend school during the day after this, Jayden discontinued his regular classes and joined the National Institute of Open Schooling for his class 9 and studies from home.
Jayden's story
Young Jayden was introduced to the world of computers by his grandfather M I Mathayi with a laptop. He mastered Word and Excel when he was in lower primary classes. While his musically inclined elder brother Naythen wanted to learn keyboard, it was the computer keyboard that was Jayden's favourite toy. Jayden's teachers at school suggested that he search for computer courses online and the youngster stumbled on the Washington University's website. Joining the cyber security course, Jayden cleared it with 100% marks and received a certificate.
He soon shifted his attention to YouTube and learnt more about artificial intelligence and machine learning. He completed some other certificate courses, too. Finally, he reached MIT.
Jayden's parents, Thomas Bose and Dr Binu M Mathew, are now no longer concerned over him. In fact, they had received much criticism for disrupting Jayden's regular schooling.
A fight against cancer
Jayden's research is based on the data made available by the American Cancer Society. Diagnosis is made using the images of people with a tool developed for the purpose. The aim of the project is to provide advanced diagnostic facilities even to people living in remote rural areas.
The youngster is also one of the key people in School of AI, an online community providing free training in artificial intelligence. The school has chapters at Kozhikode, Thiruvananthapuram, and Kochi. Funding is provided by top corporates, including Google.
He is a volunteer of Cyberdome, a programme of the Kerala Government. At Cyberdome, Jayden met T K Navaneeth, a computer science student, and both of them developed a project which will be implemented soon. It involves identifying two-wheeler riders travelling without helmet immediately and passing on the information and the images to the police within no time.
Jayden had earlier cooperated with the machine learning projects of Apple. Now he is studying some artificial intelligence courses of Microsoft. The youngster says that his goal in life is to carry out research in artificial intelligence that would benefit society. At age 14, Jayden has his task cut out.