A scientist who designs software to navigate satellites asked aspiring engineers to work hard to achieve their dreams.

Neil Pundit, a recipient of Lunar Landing Award and Mars Landing Award, met students of Super 30 and its founder mathematician Anand Kumar on Monday evening.

He was as delighted to meet the IIT-aspirants and their mentor, as they were to interact with him.

“I had heard and read a lot about Super 30. So, when I made a plan to visit Patna, I made it a point to visit the institute,” said the Nasa scientist.

He added: “It is indeed a remarkable place, so full of energy, where so many young students are preparing for the IIT entrance.”

A pioneering initiative of Anand, the 12-year-old institute has been providing free training to 30 underprivileged students every year for the IIT-JEE. Over the past 11 years, more than 200 of its students have cracked the IIT-JEE — considered to be one of the most competitive and difficult exams worldwide — and taken admission in the premier tech institutes.

On Monday, the institute lived up to its reputation. Pundit, who is now department manager at Scalable Computing Systems, Sandia National Labs, US, spent over an hour with the Super 30 students, discussing various facets of his work. He has worked on different system software and supercomputing systems.

His technical direction has resulted in 30 software patents and two international awards for innovative applications. “I have been into a whole lot of things over the last several years,” he said, encouraging students and telling them that the main mantra of success in life was to do difficult things first and to work hard.

He also asked the students to ask him anything that they felt like — be it super computing, space research or any other scientific theory. He used the blackboard to elaborate a few concepts.

“It is really nice to see Super 30 and the passionate lot of students,” he said.

Pundit also highlighted the importance of concentration for the students by drawing a connection between science and spiritualism.

Anand, who was present on the occasion, said it was indeed an honour to have Pundit at Super 30. “Such personalities give inspiration to the youths to make an extra effort to reach up to that level,” he added.

Earlier, a number of personalities, including US President Barack Obama’s envoy Rashad Hussain and several representatives of global media, academics and leaders have visited Super 30 (See graphic).