Busy and ambitious are two accurate descriptors for biomedical engineering undergraduate student Abhishek Dasgupta. While on the 40 Acres, the 21 year old who grew up in Sugarland, Texas, co-founded TEDxUTAustin, dabbled in a food startup, worked part-time as a real estate agent, conducted summer research at MD Anderson Cancer Center, and sat in on a 16-hour open brain surgery. He was recently recognized on Austin Inno’s 25 Under 25 for 2019.
How did you help bring TED to UT Austin?
As a freshman, I met friends at LeaderShape, a leadership development camp. One of our goals was to develop tangible visions we could enact. We thought a TED platform would be perfect to showcase entrepreneurship, innovation, and research at UT Austin. We held our first conference in February 2018, which consisted of UT Austin students and faculty, and Austin-area speakers. We expanded the event from 100 attendees to 500 attendees and moved to a bigger venue in our second year. As we plan for the future, my co-founders have stepped off into advisory roles, which I’ll be doing next year to help empower the students who will take over after we graduate.
Describe your research experiences?
I started doing research at MD Anderson during my junior year of high school. I worked with gene editing tools for breast cancer research. In the summer of 2018, I worked on brain cancer research and shadowed a neurosurgeon during a 16-hour open brain surgery. The surgeon didn’t eat, drink water, or use the restroom the entire time. During the surgery, I realized that behind everything in our world, there’s a human being. Behind all of decisions in all the product and services we use, there’s a person who came up with something, who has to execute something, or operate on it. I was shifted by the experience.
Why did you start working as a real estate agent, while taking classes full-time?
I worked as a real estate agent to raise money to buy my first motorcycle. I wanted to raise the money myself and be in charge of the complete management of an asset. I found one for $2,000 on Craigslist, and it broke the second day I had it. It had a fair share of problems, but I liked fixing things, adjusting the valves, and teaching myself. This all helped me and was similar to building partnerships for TedXUTAustin as well. I created value through bringing groups together and learned as I went along.
As a real estate agent, I started off helping friends and family find apartments. That’s moved to me now helping people find condos and houses. Marketing and cold calls are not who I am, so my stream of clients have all been friends and family.
What is the food tech startup you worked on?
It’s called Cook-Up and highlights the food and technology environment. I thought it up when I was a junior and moved into my own apartment. I spend a lot of time cooking and love bringing people together over food. Essentially the idea would create a digital marketplace for home-cooked meals bringing together people who want to cook with those who want that experience but don’t want to cook for one. I hit some roadblocks, so the idea went on the backburner as I focused more heavily on TED.
What made you decide you wanted to major in biomedical engineering?
In high school biology was my favorite subject. I knew if I was going to go into any engineering major it would be biomedical because of its connection to natural processes. Part of the reasoning why I chose engineering is because it scared me. I chose it so I could learn as much as possible to conquer my fears. This is also a place where I can create and really understand why things work the way they do. I’ve loved my engineering experience.
