Dubai: 11-year-old boy is among the youngest to complete AI internship at Oxford University

Veer Shandilya aspires to become the youngest data scientist in the world

A Staff Reporter

Published: Thu 27 Jan 2022, 4:16 PM

Last updated: Thu 27 Jan 2022, 10:52 PM

An 11-year-old boy at Dubai English Speaking College (DESC) has become one of the youngest students in the UAE and India to complete an artificial intelligence (AI) internship at Oxford University.

Veer Shandilya, a Grade 7 student, completed the prestigious university's Advanced Artificial Intelligence Programme. He has also studied other coding programmes, including Scratch, Turtle Academy and advanced Python langauge.

His interest in coding and technology began when he was just seven years old. After he began learning how to code, he received several awards for completing extraordinary projects.

His AI mentor, Ken Kahn, a professor and researcher at Oxford University, said: “Veer has done a commendable job in the internship programme at such a young age. He has used problem-solving skills and created an AI application that helps users to identify shapes. A perfect solution for mathematics teachers to use in virtual as well as physical classrooms to introduce the topic of shapes”.

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Veer's parents, Nilima and Sameer, said he aspires to become the youngest data scientist in the world and wishes to pursue higher education opportunities at international universities.

Shishika Kohli, the business head at Clevered - an Indian institute that teaches kids how to code - said: "Veer is one of the youngest students to complete three levels of the junior data scientist programme already. It's wonderful to see young achievers like him coming up with such innovative, AI-based applications in his internship programme."