Wesley Cai

21W0.31

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 P-

NP 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, Amartya’s 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 don’t 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 society’s 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.