This OSU sophomore runs an award-winning business in between Organic Chemistry lectures
While you were watching Netflix in the back of class, this kid was sitting a couple seats away processing data for his lab to perfect the treatment of cancer
We come to college ready to bear certain expectations: maintain a good GPA, keep on the lookout for potential jobs, and at some point, take a stab at research.
Whether our endeavors inspire everlasting intrigue and utilizable networking connections or not, it’s usually something we are mandated to try.
Peeyush Shrivastava got a head start on this in middle school.
By age 19, he had created an entire new software platform for enhanced cardiac rhythm analysis, Genetesis, which won first place in 43North, the world’s largest business idea competition, and earned Peeyush recognition by the ’20 Under 20’ Theil Foundation, the 2014 New York Venture Summit, Governor’s Thomas Edison Award and many, many more by the end of 2015.
Like any inventive contributor to society should, young Peeyush found himself questioning a method already in practice – he found holes in the logic of professional procedures, and his concern stemmed from a matter very close to heart.
“My grandfather lived on the Indian-Pakistani border, and when he came to America, he was diagnosed with a variety of neurological diseases including Parksinsons’ and Alzheimer’s. But their method of treatment was more like art than science. They would just give him a pill and see what would happen next.”
It was as early as the eighth grade when Peeyush found himself leafing through the unexploited potential in biomedical research. This is when he and his friends began to develop their fluency in coding. Ever since, his team has built a more efficient mode of diagnosis in cardiac rhythm disorders that is more precise than the guess-work that was used on his grandfather and the rest of the country’s suffering patients. It requires a meticulous familiarity with technology and electrophysiology, however Peeyush emphasizes that the significance of his project is translating that science to an applicable benefit to personalized medical treatment.
Considering the immense amount of real-life horseplay and wasted time we bathe in as a majority of the privileged and confused youth of America, I asked Peeyush if he felt amiss without the carefree aspect of his young life – he showed little remorse.
“I feel lucky that I found something that I really want to do with my life so early on.”
Between earning his biomedical sciences degree and balancing his company, Peeyush is not restricted but propelled in his productivity as a person. “Time management is definitely key,” he said.
When asked for words of advice to the rest of his dawdling fellow classmates like myself, he reminded me that this is the only time in our lives with no responsibilities and all the opportunities around us to pursue who we are and what we’re going to be. “If I wasn’t running a company on the side in college, I’d be bored out of my mind.”