BS (Data Science)
At 18, Mrityunjay Chakraborty had already considered becoming a scientist, a civil servant, a professor and, briefly, something close to Tony Stark. None of those plans lasted long. He discovered JEE, changed schools, considered IISc Bangalore, abandoned JEE and eventually joined the IIT Madras BS Degree in Data Science and Applications after receiving an email about the programme. His reasoning was refreshingly straightforward: data science seemed like one of the highest-paying careers he had come across, and he liked AI.
He also liked Tony Stark. “The career planning was rather impulsive,” he admits. The impulsiveness continued. To enroll in the BS Degree in its early years, he needed proof of admission to another college. So he joined not one, but two colleges, obtained the necessary paperwork and eventually dropped out of both without attending either. But the 18-year-old who made decisions on instinct did not remain the same for long.
Mrityunjay credits the programme with teaching him a calmness he had not had before – and, more importantly, changing how he made decisions.
He began moving from instinct to evidence, learning to think things through before acting. His journey through student leadership was equally eventful. After becoming Secretary of Saranda House, a sharp criticism from a council member forced him to rethink how he approached the role. Three days later, he returned to the meeting, accepted the criticism and got to work. Within a week, his team had proposed three events, including a Computer Vision workshop that drew around 100 participants. The person who had criticised him eventually became one of his strongest supporters.
Then came Responsible AI. At the ACM Summer School at IIT Madras, Mrityunjay discovered that AI could take him far beyond the familiar paths of data science and AI engineering. Public policy, law and governance suddenly entered the picture. Cybersecurity caught his attention too, until he explored it more closely. Then came quantum computing. This, surely, was it. The Tony Stark dream seemed alive again – until he studied the field properly. His verdict was much less dramatic: “It was surely not for me.”
But the explorations were not wasted. After a difficult period in 2024, Mrityunjay applied to Nirmaan’s pre-incubation programme and was selected with an idea he is now developing through ‘Forgotten Minds’, a venture focused on accessibility. He also became a co-founder of RASOR, the research society of IITM BS Degree, while continuing to explore the intersection of Responsible AI, public policy and technology. The fields he once treated as possible destinations were beginning to become pieces of a much larger picture.
Among all these turns, one chapter stands out: Bharat Mandapam. In 2023, Mrityunjay had visited the IIT Madras BS Degree’s stall at the G20 events there. He remembers being disappointed that he wasn’t among the students representing the programme. He told himself that one day, he would return. Three years later, he did – but not in the way he had imagined.
The opportunity began with something much more ordinary: a project for his SPG course based on the World Economic Forum’s ‘Future of Jobs’ report. Around the same time, his father forwarded him an opportunity for the Viksit Bharat Young Leaders Dialogue. Mrityunjay took the quiz, wrote an essay on building a future-ready workforce and presented his ideas at the state level. He was eventually selected to represent Assam at Bharat Mandapam. A project he had started as coursework had become the material he was presenting on a national stage. The experience opened further doors, including contributing to disability policy discussions with the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment and being invited to the Prime Minister’s Post-Budget Webinar.
For someone whose journey has taken so many unexpected turns, Mrityunjay has surprisingly little interest in predicting what comes next. He focuses on the goal in front of him while keeping an eye on the larger direction.
His advice to others is equally simple: don’t compare your journey with someone else’s. Everyone’s story is different. “Nobody wants to watch the same movie twice,” he says. “So why expect everyone’s life to follow the same script?”
He still doesn’t know whether his next chapter will be in AI, public policy, law, entrepreneurship or somewhere entirely unexpected. And perhaps that uncertainty is fitting. The 18-year-old who once tried to plan a career around AI, money and Tony Stark has learned something more useful: the best path is not always the one you can predict. For now, Mrityunjay is content to keep exploring – and let the next chapter surprise him.
~written by Shambhavi Shekhar
