Santosh Kumar with his wife Smriti and children. Telegraph pictures

Patna, Nov. 10: Santosh Kumar, an assistant professor of computer science in the University of Memphis, has been listed among the 10 most brilliant young scientists in the United States (US) by Popular Science magazine.

Nominated in May, Kumar won the honour in October, being given by the magazine for the ninth year. Only three nominees are chosen from each university across the US. People from the scientific community and professional organisations chose Kumar. His achievement was applauded and celebrated in the University of Memphis.

Born in Begusarai district, Kumar is the only Indian to clinch this title. It was around a decade ago that Kumar decided to research concentrating on projects that would help to reduce adversities and benefit people around the world. Thus, Kumar and his team developed two systems, AutoWitness and AutoSense.

Talking to The Telegraph from the United States, Kumarsaid that his parents’ extraordinary efforts gave him good education. A proud and beaming Sunita Kumari, Kumar’s mother, said she could never imagine that her son would bring such glory to the family. Sitting at her Patna residence, Sunita, a middle-school teacher, said: “I knew that Kumar was intelligent right from his childhood. At the age of four, he used to be perfect in English. He had a passion for reading books, especially those related to science. He was always curious to know about things.”

Reminiscing about her husband, Bhagwan Choudhary, Sunita said he used to lend much importance to Kumar’s studies. A railway contractor, Choudhary, dreamt that at least one of his four sons would become an IAS officer. Though that did not happen, all of them are IIT-ians. Kumarthe eldest, went to the US in 2000, where he pursued MS in computer science and engineering from the University of Ohio.

He completed his PhD in 2006 from the same university. Santosh’s brother, Alok, said that Kumarhad earlier invented optical switch, which Ohio State University patented in his name.

I could never imagine that Santosh would bring such glory to the family. He was intelligent right from his childhood. At the age of four, he used to be perfect in English. He had a passion for reading books, especially science ones. He was always curious to know about things Sunita Kumari Mother of Santosh Kumar

Kumardesires to develop devices for the common masses. Elaborating on his inventions, Kumarsaid: “Both the devices have been inspired by real problems plaguing our society today.

The AutoWitness device helps reduce property thefts, whereas the AutoSense would reduce stress and addictive behaviour. Be it the stress in traffic or work, this wireless device helps a lot in avoiding the stress.” He added: “I have seen people face these problems.”

Having completed his studies at Gandhi Shikshan Sansthan, Begusarai and Sainik School, Purulia, Kumar passed out his Class XII from St Michael’s High School, Patna. He wants to continue his research to contribute to the society further.

AutoWitness works on a tiny chip, which can be embedded in valuables. It is a low-cost and ultra low-power sensor. It can detect and track the theft of the valuable.

In fact, the system helps law enforcement agencies track down and locate the stolen items. The project is sponsored by National Science Foundation and Fedex Institute of Technology.

Kumar, along with his team and in collaboration with University of Michigan, has developed this wireless sensor. This has been demonstrated to work in real life. Not only this, the police departments of Memphis and Jackson, Tennessee, are interested in helping test the device in the cities. It is said that this is the first system providing automatic detection of theft plus real-time tracking of the stolen property.

Kumar is the leader of a group of 15 professors from seven universities (Carnegie Mellon University, University of Pittsburgh, Georgia Institute of Technology, Ohio State University, University of Minnesota, University of California, Los Angeles, and University of Massachusetts).

The device is the first unobtrusive, wearable sensor that can collect physiological measurements as respiration patterns, heart rate and blood alcohol level of the one wearing the wireless sensor.