TinkerHub Story #2
How Asking the Right Questions took CUSAT Boy Sanket to Facebook and Bell Labs!
“ Sometimes, all it takes to achieve your dreams is just to ask. “
Sanket Kumar Thakur was an enthusiastic and excellent engineering student at School Of Engineering, CUSAT till 2018. Now, he is a Student Research Scientist at Nokia Bell Labs, the historic birthplace of revolutionary innovations. He has a long list of accolades and accomplishments that go with his profile.
He has been a finalist and winner at numerous global challenges and contests, including Unity India #FreedomWithUnity Contest, MHacks Nano, KPIT, Ideathon hosted by Kerala Startup Mission, Ideation BootCamp hosted by Enterpreneurship Cell, NIT Trichy, and was chosen as a Singapore Youth Peacemaker in 2016 by the World Islamic Economic Forum (WIEF).
He has also been awarded the Scholarship for S.T.E.A.M School, Makers’ Asylum and was a participant at HackMIT, RealityVirtuality Hackathon, PennApps, HackUPC hosted by MIT, MIT Media Labs, Univ. of Pennsylvania and MIT Emerging World 2017.
So, how did he do it?
Maybe we could just ask him.
Presenting the second story from TinkerHub about young achievers and their success stories that begin with a technology learning culture — How Asking the Right Questions took Sanket Thakur from MOOCs to Facebook to Bell Labs!
Read our first story here: How a Girl from Kochi went from Struggling for Parents’ Permission to Attend a Hackathon to Becoming a Google WTM Scholar! featuring Ann Philip.
Join us as we interview one of the first members of TinkerHub Community!
✨Your tryst with technology
I had a lot of expectations about college. ‘These are going to be the golden years of my life’, or so I thought. You know, the movie waali feeling.
But reality is so different from your expectations right?
Painfully so.
College was very boring and nothing was happening instead of stupid assignments which even teachers knew we would copy from the internet. I used to procrastinate a lot on my own. Then I started with MOOCs and did some basic projects (catch some of them here!) but I always felt something was missing.
It was at the end of the year that some of the seniors and all of us students gathered together and started TinkerHub, a community to promote learning technology. It was very small at the beginning, but something is better than nothing. I still remember Jibin Jose as the first speaker, sharing his experience. I was literally amazed by the things the guy had done! Thanks to him, I got to know about challenges and competitions like hackathons.
TinkerHub started with the idea of bringing like-minded people together, get to know about each other’s experiences and try to build our LinkedIn profile (that’s where I first got to know about it!). The meetings, seminars and classes by TinkerHub were always a treasure trove of knowledge. They motivated us to do something ourselves.
So I did a breakout of my plan and every semester I would focus on one thing.
1st year — I learned from MOOCs and TinkerHub sessions.
3rd semester — I started building projects.
4th semester- I tried to give some talks, or you could say I tried networking.
Thus I used to grow bit by bit through every semester that passed. Every year I would start doing something new and different from the previous semester.
👨💻First Hackathon experience
I always had a dream to earn some money while in college, through competitions. I decided to go for hackathons and challenges. God, I was so nervous for my first hackathon! I had always made some projects on my own, but never built something with a team.
My biggest concern was “What will happen if I am not able to build something ?”
The seniors gave me great support. They would always say, “Don’t worry, it’s all good.” It is from that point onward that you could find me easier at hackathons than in classrooms. I mostly spent every weekend in Bangalore. My parents didn’t know about it though!
I still remember when I bought my first Xbox with hackathon money! That was the best feeling ever.
📜On Opportunities Won and Lost
I never actually got any support from my college. Once I got a chance to work on a project by Samsung Research in America and I had to spend some time in Bangalore. There was another time when I was selected for a competition at MIT (I had been applying for it since my 2nd year and I finally got selected in my 4th year). But teachers won’t let me go because I had attendance issues! For them attendance mattered more. Even the college administration turned a blind eye to me.
In my 3rd year, CUSAT Launchpad was held and my team won the competition. Although it didn’t work out later on, I started my own company with support from Singapore. I went to Singapore! It was also a dream of mine to go abroad at least once while in college. In fact I had these small small dreams before coming to college, like winning competitions, earning money, going abroad. It held a very special value for me.
In 2016 when I was at the peak of my excitement and interests I applied for a competition called Bell Labs Prize. I wasn’t selected for the finals but I did get to meet some of the people from Bell Laboratories.
So yeah, as you can see, I started with MOOCs, did some projects, did some networking, went to competitions, tried starting a company (unsuccessfully) and now I am doing research at Bell Laboratories! I never thought I would end up here. It’s like ‘living the dream’.
🎙Being Interviewed by TinkerHub!
Yes, I feel really nostalgic. It’s amazing to see what TinkerHub has grown into. When Jibin came up for the very first talks session and everybody was keenly listening to him, I thought “One day I wanna be like him. I want people to hear me when I speak and I want to share my challenges and experiences.” That was my motivation. It’s like when people say, “Motivation can come from anything, you just have to keep searching.”
At college, I didn’t have many friends and I used to feel lonely. To most people, I was someone who regularly missed classes, did not perform well in exams and would not be able to sit in the interviews. But there was an upside.
I would watch some tutorials and build something from what I know and post it on Instagram and Facebook.
I loved it when people would react or comment on something I had built.
That was my motivation too, and that kept me eager to learn something new everyday.
👨🏫As Mentor at Facebook School of Innovation
Yeah it was great! I used to see a lot of MOOCs. But getting to make a MOOC, that’s one hell of an experience. I was working with a huge team of students from across India. It was intimidating at first but it was good.
I was never like a mentor to them. I used to talk with students very casually. But sadly I couldn’t attend the final VR day. It was honestly a great experience for me and one that not many get to have. I am thankful to SV team and Facebook for offering me the opportunity.
Journey from an Introvert to a Mentor
Yes, I faced a lot of trouble. Especially in my networking focused semester. I was flustered as to how I would connect with people. If I had question, how could I directly ask anyone? I was never good at the preliminary conversations. But I later realized that people like it when you directly come to the point.
Let me tell you. All this, the Facebook thing, my Singapore Startup, Bell Labs, all came from a single question.
‘ Can I ?’
And that did the magic !
Can I be a part of an FB course?
Can I work with you to build something for clients at Singapore?
Can I work at Bell Labs ?
It would seem really philosophical coming from me. But that’s the reality today. Unless you ask, you will never know !
And finally, Bell Labs…
It was on the Diwali day, 7th November 2018 that I got a mail with the subject ‘Opportunity at Bell Labs’. I responded with no hesitation and was scheduled for an interview with three other scientists and thankfully it all went well.
I literally cried when I got the call of appointment!
And it sometimes makes me wonder, what if I hadn’t mailed that person? What if I hadn’t asked him if I could get into Bell Labs? But I asked.
And sometimes, all it takes to get your dreams is just to ask.
👓Researcher Role
I never thought research could be this interesting. I am always working on some problem that we common people wouldn’t even think of.
Epilogue: What advice would you give to your younger self if you could meet yourself back in the past?
I would tell myself to never be afraid to ask questions.
Whatever I achieved, wherever I have been to, it has always been because I was not hesitant to ask the right questions.
And that would be the advice I would give to all the young engineers or innovators and the younger me.
Well, we need to remember that this cool, totally chilled-out Sanket that you just saw in this interview has had to make his share of sacrifices in order to get where he wanted to be. As always, first you need the dream. Then the vision. And an action plan for the mission.
So that’s a wrap. We hope Sanket’s story has been able to trigger your innovative spirits!
This TinkerHub story was brought to you by Sreeram Venkitesh and Abhijith G Anil from the TinkerHub Team! If you loved reading this post, show your appreciation by clapping below! Stay tuned to us for more reads on learning, building and collaborating.
We love to hear from you! Learn more about us on the website. Reach out to us via e-mail or follow us on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.
