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Ritankar Das

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Ritankar Das
BornNovember 27, 1994
Alma materUniversity of California Berkeley, University of Oxford
Scientific career
FieldsPhysical Sciences, Life Sciences, Engineering

Ritankar Das is an American scientist and technology entrepreneur. He was the founder and CEO of Dascena, a healthcare-focused machine learning AI startup. At 18, he was the youngest University Medalist (top graduating senior) in at least a century among over 6000 graduates from UC Berkeley.[1][2][3][4] He has been featured in the San Francisco Chronicle,[1] ABC News,[4] Times of India[5] and over 100 other media outlets around the globe.[6][7]

Early life and education

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Das was born in Kolkata, India and moved Milwaukee, Wisconsin at the age seven. He graduated from Mission San Jose High School in Fremont, CA before attending the University of California, Berkeley.[8] In three years, he completed his studies at UC Berkeley with a double major in bioengineering and chemical biology and a minor in creative writing.[7][9] He is UC Berkeley's youngest University Medalist in at least 100 years, and is also the first Medalist ever from the Department of Bioengineering and first from the College of Chemistry in the last 58 years.[7][2][9] He then received a master’s degree in biomedical engineering at Oxford University. After that, he commenced doctoral studies in machine learning at the University of Cambridge before dropping out in 2017.[10]

Research

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Das began researching alternative energy sources at the age of 12 and continued this work at the Energy Biosciences Institute and the United States Department of Energy.[6][7][9][11] His research work included development of better solvents to break down cellulose for biofuels and finding new ways to grow nanowires for using in highly efficient solar cells.[9][12] He then conducted research on organic light-emitting diodes at Taiwan's Academia Sinica.[4][12] After that, Das performed artificial intelligence and computer vision research at the Oxford Institute of Biomedical Engineering and at Cambridge University.[13]

Das also analyzed entries for the Presidential Green Chemistry Awards at the United States Environmental Protection Agency.[1][9] He was recognized by the Smithsonian as a "Future Nobel Laureate", was named a graduate fellow of the National Science Foundation and is featured in an upcoming National Geographic documentary.[6][7]

Dascena

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In 2017, Das founded Dascena, a healthcare-focused machine learning AI startup.[14] Dascena’s machine learning research was funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.[15]

In 2019, Dascena partnered with Danaher Corporation and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority to develop an algorithm for early sepsis detection.[16] In 2020, Dascena announced a $50 million funding round.[17][14] The Food and Drug Administration issued an Emergency Use Authorization to Dascena for its algorithm used to inform COVID-19 care.[18]

In 2021, the Food and Drug Administration issued a Breakthrough Device Designation to Dascena for its algorithm used to predict GI bleed risk.[19] In 2022, Dascena developed an algorithm for identifying patients with pulmonary hypertension in collaboration with Johnson and Johnson.[20] Dascena was acquired by CirrusDx in 2022.[21]

UC Berkeley

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As a student at UC Berkeley, Das served as an Academic Senator and helped manage a $1.7 million budget.[7][22][23] He founded a research journal, Berkeley Chemical Review, formed a campus chapter of the American Chemical Society, and served as a graduate student instructor.[7][9][24] He is the youngest inductee of the Berkeley Wall of Fame, alongside Aaron Rodgers, Gregory Peck and Steve Wozniak.[7][2]

See Your Future

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Das was the founder and CEO of See Your Future, an education NGO that reached 75 million people worldwide.[6][7][25][11][22] The goal of See Your Future was to increase the access of underrepresented students, such as low income, minority groups and female students, to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) careers with the help of curiosity-based learning and new technology platforms.[22][26] See Your Future was merged with Community Resources for Science in 2016.

References

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  1. ^ a b c Asimov, Nanette (May 14, 2013). "Teen to receive UC's University Medal". SFGATE. Retrieved March 27, 2023.
  2. ^ a b c "Ritankar Das '13 | UC Berkeley Wall of Fame". berkeleywalloffame.org. Retrieved March 27, 2023.
  3. ^ Ritankar Das - Berkeley's 2013 University Medalist, retrieved March 27, 2023
  4. ^ a b c ABC7. "UC Berkeley names 18-year-old as the school's top graduating senior | ABC7 San Francisco | abc7news.com". ABC7 San Francisco. Retrieved March 27, 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  5. ^ "Wonder kid Ritankar Das felicitated at Indian Embassy in US". The Times of India. June 11, 2013. ISSN 0971-8257. Retrieved March 27, 2023.
  6. ^ a b c d "Ritankar Das (1994 – ) :: Young Exceptionally Gifted Students". April 7, 2017. Archived from the original on April 7, 2017. Retrieved March 27, 2023.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i "USA Science and Engineering Festival - Young Innovators Appointed to Serve on Festival's Youth Advisory Board!". March 4, 2014. Archived from the original on March 4, 2014. Retrieved March 27, 2023.
  8. ^ Andrea Hicklin|. "Incoming freshmen on the move – from here, there, everywhere". Berkeley News. Retrieved March 27, 2023.
  9. ^ a b c d e f Yang, Sarah; Relations|, Media. "An 18-year-old wunderkind named top graduating senior". Berkeley News. Retrieved March 27, 2023.
  10. ^ "Ritankar Das – OURS National Scholarships". Retrieved April 10, 2023.
  11. ^ a b "Ritankar Das | THE SUBSTRATE". March 8, 2014. Archived from the original on March 8, 2014. Retrieved March 27, 2023.
  12. ^ a b 2013 Goldwater Scholars Archived February 1, 2014, at the Wayback Machine
  13. ^ "Wonder kid Ritankar Das felicitated at Indian Embassy in US". The Economic Times. June 11, 2013. ISSN 0013-0389. Retrieved March 27, 2023.
  14. ^ a b DeArment, Alaric (May 1, 2020). "Dascena raises $50M in Series B round, publishes data on machine learning in sepsis prediction". MedCity News. Retrieved March 27, 2023.
  15. ^ Melchionna, Mark (March 10, 2022). "NIH Grant Supports Creation of Non-Biased Machine-Learning Algorithm". Health IT Analytics.
  16. ^ "Sepsis early detection algorithm receives development funding". healthcare-in-europe.com. Retrieved March 20, 2023.
  17. ^ "Dascena Announces Closing of $50 Million Series B Financing to Support Advancement of Diagnostic Algorithm Development Engine to Inform Patient Care and Improve Outcomes". www.businesswire.com. April 30, 2020. Retrieved April 10, 2023.
  18. ^ Robbins, Rebecca (October 5, 2020). "FDA issues rare emergency authorization for an algorithm used to inform Covid-19 care". STAT. Retrieved March 20, 2023.
  19. ^ "Dascena gets FDA breakthrough device for GI Bleed Risk Alert System". NS Medical Devices. February 25, 2021. Retrieved March 20, 2023.
  20. ^ Kogan, Emily; Didden, Eva-Maria; Lee, Eileen; Nnewihe, Anderson; Stamatiadis, Dimitri; Mataraso, Samson; Quinn, Deborah; Rosenberg, Daniel; Chehoud, Christel; Bridges, Charles (March 1, 2023). "A machine learning approach to identifying patients with pulmonary hypertension using real-world electronic health records". International Journal of Cardiology. 374: 95–99. doi:10.1016/j.ijcard.2022.12.016. ISSN 1874-1754. PMID 36528138.
  21. ^ CirrusDx. "CirrusDx Acquires Dascena's Texas Laboratory Business, Expanding Infectious Disease Portfolio". www.prnewswire.com. Retrieved April 10, 2023.
  22. ^ a b c "Indian wonderkid, Ritankar Das, is century's youngest California University topper". Zee News. Retrieved March 27, 2023.
  23. ^ "Ritankar Das | HuffPost". www.huffpost.com. Retrieved March 27, 2023.
  24. ^ "Q& A with UC Berkeley University Medalist of the Year Ritankar Das". May 11, 2018. Archived from the original on May 11, 2018. Retrieved March 27, 2023.
  25. ^ "Dell Launches the Youth Innovation Advisors Program | Dell". December 21, 2016. Archived from the original on December 21, 2016. Retrieved March 27, 2023.
  26. ^ "See Your Future". November 5, 2016. Archived from the original on November 5, 2016. Retrieved March 27, 2023.
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