The Heritage School, Kolkata · Class of 2027
Hi, I'm Ayaan Syed Imam. Economics, computer science, and the people both leave out.
IB Diploma student at The Heritage School, Kolkata: Physics, Mathematics AA, Economics and Computer Science at Higher Level, Spanish at Standard. Grade 11 school topper. I intend to study economics and computer science together, because every question I have cared about has needed both.
01 In one paragraph
Who I am, in short.
I build the model that finds who the market left out, then I build the thing that lets them in.
I am Ayaan Syed Imam, a Grade 12 IB student and School Captain at The Heritage School, Kolkata. My research and my service are the same project. I published two papers before this application cycle: M-ROLL, a regime-switching portfolio model in IJFMR, and a rare-earth supply-shock classifier in an ABDC-indexed journal that called both 2025 Chinese restrictions about 28 days early from free data. The third paper came from a turf. Coaching 400 children with disabilities every week at Prayatna, I kept asking what happens to them at 25, and I answered with a 1.29-million-record study of disability-correlated exclusion in credit scoring. The same instinct built a Hinglish voicebot for a microfinance recovery team, a wristband that turns a referee's whistle into a vibration, and three letters of intent from employers. This year I won an eight-way captaincy election, ran Youthopia for 3,000 people and $70K, took first prize at Young India Innovates for the wristband, and donated two assistive tools to the Academy of Skill Development. The tension I am working through: whether the best use of a quantitative mind is to beat the market or to widen who gets into it.
02 Ten things, one line each
A number, a verb, a consequence.
What I did, in a line each, ordered by how much it says about me.
- 01Lead researcher, first authorQuant finance, IJFMRBuilt M-ROLL, a Markov regime-switching portfolio model; tested 10 divergence metrics across 5 sectors; Sharpe 1.87, drawdown cut 44% to 28%.
- 02ML researcherRare-earth export forecastingEngineered a 10-feature classifier from GDELT, state media and REMX prices; flagged both 2025 restrictions 28 days early; ABDC-indexed journal.
- 03Independent researcherAlgorithmic fairnessBuilt a proxy model over 1.29M loan records to detect disability-correlated denial; found a 2.8-point approval gap; re-tuned thresholds to close it.
- 04Founder and developerAssistive AI toolsBuilt a sign-to-Bengali recogniser (MobileNetV2 + BiLSTM) and a haptic band turning referee whistles into alerts under 0.5 s; tested on turf.
- 05EdTech developer, 1 of 3Filibot with CheentaDesigned gamified NEP activities and built AI analytics flagging struggling students; deployed to 110+ rural schools and 10,000+ students.
- 06Organiser, adaptive sportPrayatna FoundationDesigned and adapted games for 400+ children with disabilities from players' feedback; co-led Aashayein 2026 for 800, leading 20 volunteers.
- 07School CaptainThe Heritage SchoolWon an 8-way election of 800 voters; lead assemblies and inter-school events; mentor younger students; hosted the State Education Minister.
- 08PresidentYouthopia 2026Selected and led a 40-member team for East India's largest student fest; raised $70K in sponsorship; 3,000+ attendees; gave the opening speech.
- 09AI application internArdent for Bargach microfinanceBuilt a loan-recovery voicebot with Flask, Twilio, Whisper, Polly and a local LLM; Hinglish calls, compliance logging, scaled by design.
- 10Co-founderVysion streetwearCo-launched a D2C tee label; sold 300+ tees for $3.8K; ran supply chain and event sales; profits bought $1K+ of gear for disabled athletes.
03 Awards and olympiads
On the record.
- Young India Innovates D3, 2026, Coding AvengersRegionalFirst prize for the whistle-detection haptic wristband, 19 April 2026 · Grade 12 · Letter
- Future Intelligence Students Olympiad, Digital TechnologyNationalAll India Rank 1 · Grade 12
- International Economics OlympiadNational roundAIR 20, interviewed for the Indian team · Grade 11
- SEAMO, Southeast Asian Mathematical OlympiadInternationalGold at nationals, qualified to represent India
- ASMO, Asia Science and Mathematics OlympiadInternationalGold, qualified to represent India · Grade 10
- Aryabhatta National Mathematics CompetitionNationalAIR 22
- National Finance OlympiadNationalAIR 44
- IB Certificates of MeritSchoolHighest marks in Physics HL, Mathematics AA HL, Economics HL, Computer Science HL, Spanish SL; Grade 11 school topper; IGCSE school topper · Grades 10 to 11
- UPL Cricket LeagueCityMost valuable player ($600), best batsman, captain
- Academy of Skill DevelopmentAcknowledgementLetter acknowledging the donation of the Translator App and the Employment Aggregator platform for specially-abled individuals, 6 August 2026 · Grade 12 · Letter
04 Training
Where I learned the tools.
- Mitra Robotics Academy: ML, NLP, LLMs, computer vision and RAG; built CNNs, chatbots and LLM apps (Grades 9 to 10)
- One-year intensive data analytics course (2023 to 2024)
- Microsoft SQL, Udemy (2024)
- Forage Power BI virtual internship