New Delhi, July 4 Delhi's 21-year-old Abhishek Agrahari, a student of Mechanical engineering, who previously participated in Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) for research and training, has received invitation from around 50 overseas research centers but, the lack a money is proving a big hurdle to make his dream come true.
Born in lower-middle class family in east Delhi's Mayur Vihar area, he has received internship offers from the University of Oxford and the USA's Pennsylvania State University and the University of Illinois, among others. However, he does not have enough money to continue his research (as he claimed) and finding other ways to fulfill his dream.
Having realised that only sponsorship can give an opportunity to continue his research studies, he has written to Delhi Government and has requested for sponsorship. In a letter addressed to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Delhi Education Minister Manish Sisodia, he said that in the last one year when the entire world was in lockdown, he bagged several research offers from around 18 countries.
"Coming from a humble background, financial hardship is the biggest constraint in my way. My economically challenged family is not capable enough to support me in the research work. I am desperately seeking sponsorship to visit prestigious foreign universities from January 2022," his letter reads.
He has also written a similar letter to Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' and Member of Parliament (MP) from East Delhi - Gautam Gambhir and has requested to provide sponsorship so that he can continue his research and studies.
It has been more than 10 days (letters sent on June 22), however, he is yet to receive any assurance or reply, so far. "My vision is to explore my knowledge through research in various fields pertaining to engineering and pure Science and Mathematics. I want to win medal for the country and I believe that I can do it," Abhishek said while talking to .
Abhishek, a third year Mechanical Engineering student at Thapar Institute of Engineering And Technology (TIET), Patiala, is striving hard to carve out his success story.
He said right now he is collaborating with few institutes remotely on various research themes ranging from pure and applied mathematics to condensed matter physics, material science, chemistry and chemical biology.
Initially, he said, it seemed like a Himalayan task but once things become clear, everything becomes easy. "It is a rarity for students to receive research offers in both engineering, pure sciences & mathematics, but I was lucky to get this opportunity and now all depends on money required for research," he added.
He said, research and exploring something new every day has been a love for his life. "Research attracted me from the very beginning as I do not like following what is in the mainstream. I constantly want to explore something new," Abhishek said.
He said that he has to study from other sources for his research as the topics that he is focusing on are not taught at the bachelor's level and they are mostly researched during the post-doctoral or PhD level.
"Since all my work is research oriented and being a multidisciplinary I learn various aspects ranging from pure mathematics, mechanical and aerospace engineering, material science, physics and Penrose formalism." he said.
Apart from DRDO, he has also worked with IIT Bombay on fluid-structure interaction and IIT Kanpur on fluid dynamics and has offers from the institute's centres in Kharagpur, Indore and Madras.
When asked about which university he would prefer if sponsorship will be provided, he said he would give first preference to University of Oxford.
"I always believed that if they (IIT) could get there, why can't I?" he concluded.
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor