To celebrate the 75th anniversary of India’s independence and India-UK educational ties, National Indian Students and Alumni Union UK (NISAU UK) in partnership with the British Council in India and the UK Government’s Department of Trade hosted the India UK Achievers Honours to recognise and celebrate the work of young Indian students and alumni, who have pursued a British programme of study. Professor Somdip Dey, the inventor of the QR code-based degree transcript, is among the outstanding achievers of the honours beside Parineeti Chopra, Raghav Chadha, Adar Poonawalla, Menaka Guruswamy, Aditi Chauhan, Samir Saran and Marya Shakil.
Somdip was born in Kolkata and graduated with B.Sc. in Computer Science from St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata, in 2012. After graduting he co-developed the QR code-based degrees and transcripts that are now popularly issued to students upon graduating in many of the Indian universities. Somdip moved to the UK to complete his master’s degree from the University of Manchester and executive education from the University of Oxford. Currently, he is completing his PhD in embedded machine learning at the University of Essex while being a Lecturer of Computer Science at the University.
At the University of Essex Somdip has been involved with a number of projects at Essex, including the creation of the EOptomizer app, which can boost the life of a smartphone battery by roughly 30 per cent to contribute to net zero emission goals. He also helped produce the Nosh app, which enables shoppers to track the expiry date of food products in a bid to help minimise food waste. His work on the Nosh app extended him to cofound Nosh Technologies, where he is the CEO and Chief Scientist, developing technologies to reduce food waste and hunger. For Somdip’s contributions in technology, last year he was also elected as a Life Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and named an MIT Innovator Under 35 in Europe. He is now also the Danah Zohar Chair Professor of Quantum Philosophy at the Woxsen University, and the CTO of Blockway Technologies, which he also cofounded to develop a machine learning based platform to reduce scams and malicious behaviour in blockchain.
The India UK achievers’ list is made up of former or current Indian students in the UK who have gone on to excel in their fields while inspiring and encouraging many others to dream and achieve. The plethora of nominations went through a rigorous selection process by an eminent jury, shortlisting the India’s 75 top achievers, 8 outstanding achievers, 3 living legends and 1 lifetime achiever. While the achievers come from diverse fields, one thread that binds them all is their contribution to society. While some achievers are based in the UK, many flew in from India and other parts of the world.
The living legends of the achievers’ honour include Amitabh Bachchan, Virendra Sharma MP of the UK and Lord Karan Bilimoria from the UK while Dr. Manmohan Singh – Former Prime Minister of India was honoured as the lifetime achiever.
After being honoured as the outstanding achiever in education, science & innovation, Somdip commented, “I am truly honoured and humbled to have received this award. It is a testament to my decision to come and study in the UK. Separately, I hope that I can use this achievement of mine to mentor and help more Asian students in the UK to build a fulfilling life for themselves.”
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