Sojas Wagle emerged victorious at the National Brain Bee.
Sojas Wagle emerged victorious at the National Brain Bee.
SAN FRANCISCO (Diya TV) — Indian-American teenagers made a clean sweep of first, second and third prize at this year’s National Brain Bee Championship, Arkansas teen Sojas Wagle took home the grand prize.
Candidates from more than 30 states were quizzed on their knowledge of the human brain, including topics such as intelligence, emotions, memory, sleep, vision, hearing, sensations, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, schizophrenia, addictions and brain research.
The competition, sponsored in part by Department of Neural and Pain Sciences of the University of Maryland Dental School, involved a neuroanatomy laboratory practical exam with real human brains. Wagle, a 15-year-old sophomore in high school, moves on to the International Brain Bee Championship that will be held in Washington, D.C., Aug. 3-6, in conjunction with the American Psychological Association conference.
Ironically, Wagle is the second Arkansas student in as many years to win the competition.
Sojas narrowly outscored runner-up Aarthi Vijayakumar of Minneapolis and Amit Kannan of Indianapolis. Sojas said his interest in the competition stemmed from his independent curiosity of advanced placement psychology.
“I studied harder and kind of perfected the neuroanatomy section to make sure I was familiar with all parts of the brain and could point those out on a brain model,” he told Arkansas Online.
He also participates in debate and plays the violin, but right now, Wagles is considering a career in medicine. His father, Sameer, works as a neonatologist.
For now, Wagle can add another trophy to his mantle:
