An 18 year old Viputheshwar Sitaraman has became the youngest University of Arizona graduate this year after receiving his bachelor's degree from UA. He started his studies at the UA in August 2014, when he was 16 year old. He goes by Vip.
"I’ve just always been trying to be ahead I guess?" said Sitaraman, adding usually his age is helpful.
"People are kind of awestruck and like 'oh you’re only 18.' And other times people start to doubt whether I do what I do or question my experience or knowledge just because of my age, so it’s a double-edge sword," he said.
Sitaraman started his company DrawScience,while studying at the UA. Now, he will give his complete focus on the company. "I started this for fun, because I hate how people read about science," Sitaraman says. "Everything I've learned is on the fly."
"I want to change how people read about science," says Sitaraman, who professes "an acute hatred" of dense jargon. "I can draw and make something simpler. We've communicated with text for a long time. Graphics are faster when attention spans are dropping."
The company works with academic publishers. It takes laboratory research and explains it in the easy way, so that anyone from a scientist to a layperson can understand.
Sitaraman said that, the funding for the venture has been secured in advance. He is planning to take a break from classroom for a period of time.
Sitaraman, a high school Vip, from Chandler, Arizona was already devouring research papers. His papers on Biology were published by the World Forum. He earned regional and international science competitions, filling posters with Adobe Photoshop diagrams and drawings.
The youngest UA graduate said that, his other ventures are KorkBoard, a mobile app geared toward promoting student events and LiveLoveLab, a resource for STEM students.
"I've fallen flat, over and over," he said. "I skipped a couple of grades in school, yeah, but it took me three years to get into a research lab. My parents taught me to not be afraid of failure. In the end, even when you fail, you end up learning so much."
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