September 27th, 2026

• I have been building out Project Fermat with Ishaan Harish quite a bit this week. We now have a growing team of undergraduate students from Nanyang Technological University Singapore, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, St. Stephen's College, Delhi, Ashoka University, and elsewhere, along with past international medallists from competitions including ITYM, INMO, and AMC. We also had our first outreach meeting this week, and I'm really happy with the people who have come on board so far. We're still looking for volunteers, so if you're interested, email us at theprojectfermat@gmail.com.
• I had a great conversation with Apoorva Agarwal, who studies Physics at Rice University and was part of RSI 2025. We spoke about astrophysics, research, and her experiences exploring the field. It was one of the more interesting conversations I've had recently, meeting one of the smartest people I have yet, and I came away having learnt a lot!
• I took another session of the Ukraine Seminars this week with Meher Puri, teaching around 40 students about global trade as part of the Ukraine Speaks English initiative and our partnership with Learn and Teach UA.
• I attended a live session with scientists and explorers aboard the E/V Nautilus through University of California, Santa Cruz Shadow the Scientists programme, focused on exploring deep-sea habitats around the Hawaiian Archipelago.
• This follows some great sessions I attended through the programme last year, and I'm very grateful to the Lodha Genius Programme for its collaboration with Shadow the Scientists and for making these opportunities available to students.
• I onboarded Akashi Manchanda to the Edunomix Institute India Research Team. She is the founder of StockQuest India, a financial education platform focused on helping people understand investing and the stock market. Looking forward to seeing what she brings to the team.
• Nischay Kumar has joined the Decoded Podcast as our Audio Engineer and is currently leading production. He has already been incredibly helpful with the Cary S. Krosinsky episode, and I'm looking forward to working with him on what comes next.

here's been a lot happening across Project Fermat, Edunomix, Decoded, and a few new collaborations this week. If any of this overlaps with something you're building or interested in, feel free to reach out. Always happy to talk.