In case you don't know me, I'm Krish, a 16 y/o who's passionate about research, emerging technology, and currently exploring gene editing 🧬
From attending one of the largest tech conferences in Canada to making amazing connections, and exploring my various interests, this month has been busy, to say the least. Check out September & October’s highlights 👇
Attending Elevate!🎟
During September, I was able to attend Elevate - a tech and innovation conference with a focus on the intersection of tech, arts, and social innovation! From the 20th-22nd of September, I had the chance to listen to influential speakers such as Chris Hadfield, Venus Williams, and Michele Romanow, to list a few. In between talks, I was able to make unique connections, many of whom are current pioneers in their fields. Elevate was a glimpse into a vision of power; a world powered by, AI, Blockchain, AR/VR and the Metaverse. From the interesting presentations to engaging talks to mind-blowing demos, I learnt a lot. Learn from my key takeaways:
Here are some of my takeaways
Training Autonomous vehicles using ML
Instead of training and testing their software stack on roads in a realistic setting, Raquel Urtasun's company Waabi leverages AI to train their model and run it through millions of simulations in the same time it takes traditional models to run through merely a dozen simulations.
Is Web3 a Fad?
I got to talk to Andrew Kiguel about the emergence of Web3 and blockchain, and its implications on finance, video games and the metaverse.
Using blockchain, content creators could monetize content without the "middle man" such as Meta or YouTube.
The metaverse can change schools forever. For example, the metaverse could give students the field trip they want, and the education benefits they deserve without any of the complicated logistics of a physical excursion
COD or Fortnite?
One of the most vivid conversations I had was with Faze CBass, a founder of the Faze Clan (also known as Sebastian Diamond).
I've always been a fan of the Esports and content-creation industry. We talked about how his journey started in Esports, how he thinks the industry will develop over the years and how new talent can get international recognition in the industry (from sponsors and event organizers).
We also talked about how NFTs can allow anyone to monetize content, and that there could be triple the number of content creators in upcoming years
Be Confident
The first day of Elevate was… an eye-opener, to say the least. Elevate was one of the first times I had even attended a conference, and I had very little experience with networking
I quickly realized over the course of two days that confidence was key, especially when it came to approaching people and initiating conversations. When I was confident, it resulted in far better conversations and helped me make genuine connections.
Diving Deeper into Gene Editing🧬
Around 2-3 years ago, I watched a video by Kurzgesagt—In a Nutshell, that explained the implications of the discovery of CRISPR.
Now at the time of watching the video, I thought it would make for a killer speech topic for a project I was doing in middle school. But it wasn’t until days later when the video showed up in my recommended list that I decided to follow the rabbit hole that was gene editing and CRISPR. Now at the time, being in middle school, my knowledge of gene editing was limited. After reading about the topic and understanding basically nothing, I quickly got disinterested and decided I’m never going to explore this topic, so why try anyways?
Well, years later, I was clearly wrong😅. The same video came into my recommended video earlier this year, igniting the spark once again. I became very interested in the idea of being able to address some of humanity's greatest foes (like cancer and aging) and further the physical and mental limitations of the human body.
I soon realized however that there weren’t many articles that explained CRISPR in-depth, rather looking at the technology from a superficial perspective. Hence I decided to write an article on what gene editing is, the study of genomics and how CRISPR can change our perspective when it comes to fighting diseases (and this is only the surface of gene editing) ✍🏻
Gene Editing: A Utopia in the Making🧬
Starting my Journey as an Innovator @ TKS 🚀
This September, I started attending The Knowledge Society (or TKS). TKS is a student accelerator & innovation program that exposes high school students to exponential technologies, projects, and challenges. The program is designed to train young people to maximize their ability to make an impact in the world.
I’m looking forward to the program this year, and hope to delve deeper into my passions, create new projects, and internalize many new mindsets to use in my daily life.
Insights of The Month 🧠
How Thinking “High-Standards” can 10x your life
Setting and maintaining high standards is the key to success. All of us have standards that we strive towards. But the reality is, most often these standards aren’t high. They simply look high because we have yet to see high standards in that discipline. So, if I want to achieve the best possible, my standards need to reflect that. Even if it's as simple as the standards I have for my routine or presentations, I need to implement high standards in my life to actually be a strong presenter or to have a productive routine. I cannot let excuses compromise things such as my sleep.
Thinking Unconventionally
Unconventional success comes from taking an unconventional path. “By taking the path followed by the many, you can only end up at the same destination as the many”. If I want to achieve more than the average person, then I should do more than the average person. These are some of the best phrases that encapsulate the importance of taking the unconventional path. As of right now, I want to apply that mindset in regard to setting goals and taking decisions. I don't want to choose to do something simply because everyone else is, rather I want to strive to do better in a unique way.
What’s Next? 🎯
Participating in the TKS Explore Hackathon, DECA Cluster Exam, Biology Olympiad
This month is going to be packed with new learnings from the hackathon & gene-editing challenges! Words cannot describe how excited I am.
Publishing my Personal website
creating + launching a personal website with all my projects, articles + more!
Starting my journey to become the best version of myself! 💪🏼
Within TKS, I joined a sub-program called ‘Velocity’ where ambitious teenagers work towards maximizing their potential! This is done by developing our lifestyle, and work ethic & being held accountable to achieve our goals.
Thank you so much for reading!
That's about it for now, next month has a bunch of exciting projects coming up.. so stay tuned!! Make sure you subscribe if you haven't already to follow my progress on gene-editing exploration & my personal growth journey.
As always, if you have any feedback for me, I would love to connect!
See you next month ✌️