# Surya Narayan Santhakumar: full profile Source: https://suryans.ca/ (last updated 14 October 2026) ## Summary Surya Narayan Santhakumar is a Grade 12 International Baccalaureate (IB) and Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD) student at Eastside Secondary School in Belleville, Ontario, Canada, graduating in 2027 with a 95% average. He is a community-driven, pre-incorporation tech entrepreneur who designs edge AI, robotics and embedded systems for safety and accessibility. He created VisionIQ, an offline AI wearable for people with visual impairments that won the 2026 Canada Youth Innovation Competition (CAYIA) Grand Award as the #1 project in Canada, and SafeRider, an AI-powered smart bike helmet that made him Ontario's 2026 Ingenious+ National Finalist with the Rideau Hall Foundation. He is a Canada-Wide Science Fair gold medallist and the recipient of the 2026 CWSF Engineering Innovation Award. Outside the lab, he founded the Belleville Public Library's first coding workshop program, teaching Python, micro:bit, robotics and AI to more than 100 children, and leads the Youth Wing of the United Nations Association in Canada, Quinte Branch. - School: Eastside Secondary School, Belleville, Ontario - Program: IB Programme and OSSD, Grade 12, Class of 2027 - Average: 95%, with the Outstanding Student Award with Honours and Distinction every year since Grade 9 - Focus: edge AI, computer vision, robotics, embedded systems, assistive technology - Community: 300+ documented volunteer hours - Email: suryanarayan.santhakumar@gmail.com - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/surya-narayan-s-61728b264/ - GitHub: https://github.com/su542sa ## Projects ### VisionIQ (2025 to present), founder and inventor An offline AI wearable for visual impairment. VisionIQ is a hands-free, AI-powered wearable that helps people who are blind or have low vision navigate, read and understand their surroundings. It runs entirely offline, so it works anywhere and keeps every user's data private. Recognition: - Canada Youth Innovation Competition (CAYIA) 2026 Grand Award: #1 project in Canada, $10,000 - Canada-Wide Science Fair 2026 Engineering Innovation Award, $1,000 - Canada-Wide Science Fair 2026 National Finalist, Senior Division - Quinte Regional Science and Technology Fair 2026 Best in Fair, Senior Division ### SafeRider (2024 to present), founder and inventor An AI-powered smart bike helmet. It uses computer vision to detect approaching vehicles, adds turn signals and laser path lines for visibility, and sends the rider's location and a crash report to emergency contacts after a fall. It is being developed into a compact minimum viable product, with international patent protection being pursued through the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), funded by national innovation grants. Recognition: - Ingenious+ 2026 National Finalist (Rideau Hall Foundation): the only national finalist from 100 Ontario recipients - Ingenious+ 2026 Ontario Regional Winner, Community and Civic Engagement Innovation ### HealthBot (2025) A symptom-matching expert system written in Prolog and bridged to a simple Python interface. It gives young athletes a confidence-scored read on a possible sports injury. It is aimed at the 2.5 million+ children and teens the CDC reports are treated for sports injuries each year, most with limited access to diagnostic tools. Developed and tested at high school. ### Net Zero Commute (2024) An iOS app (Swift, SwiftUI, Apple MapKit, Firebase) that routes users toward lower-carbon commute options. Demand was validated with a 120-respondent survey, in which 9 in 10 people said they would use it. Top secondary project at the Quinte Regional Science and Technology Fair 2024 and a Canada-Wide Science Fair 2024 National Finalist (top 2% in Canada). ### Snow SBOT (2021 to 2023) An autonomous, app-controlled snow-removal robot built over three development phases into a Raspberry Pi platform. It has a first-of-its-kind time-optimized plow design, a Swift and SwiftUI companion app with remote control and live video, and automatic snowfall alerts. It is built for the roughly 10,200 Canadians, over half of them seniors, who are injured clearing snow each year. Won the Canada-Wide Science Fair 2022 Gold Medal (Junior Division) and the Digital Technology Challenge Award. ### CovidEye (2021) A micro:bit and infrared-sensor device built in Grade 6 for about $60 in parts. It let small businesses screen temperatures and track occupancy at the same time during COVID-19. Won the Queen's University IDEAS Initiative Bronze Medal (3rd place nationally). It is the project that sparked his ongoing interest in hardware. ## Awards and honours ### National and international - October 2026: Canada Youth Innovation Competition (CAYIA) Grand Award, Youth Innovation Awards Foundation, top honour, $10,000, for VisionIQ. Ranked the #1 project in Canada among 45 national award winners after advancing from a Canada-wide blind online review to the live Finalist Roadshow and defending the project before a five-member panel of professors, executives and investors. Followed by meetings with Alex Cui (co-founder and CTO of GPTZero, founder of the Youth Innovation Awards Foundation) and other venture investors and industry experts about scaling VisionIQ. - May 2026: Canada-Wide Science Fair Engineering Innovation Award ($1,000), Edmonton, sponsored by the Engineering Institute of Canada and the Canadian Society for Senior Engineers, for VisionIQ. Given to one outstanding engineering project in the entire fair. - May 2026: Canada-Wide Science Fair National Finalist, Senior Division (Digital Technology), for VisionIQ. One of about 400 finalists selected from roughly 15,000 young Canadians. - May 2026: Ingenious+ National Finalist, Rideau Hall Foundation ($1,000 grant), for SafeRider. The top entry for Ontario and the province's only national finalist from 100 regional recipients. Represented Ontario at the national stage in Ottawa and was invited by Her Excellency the Right Honourable Mary Simon, Governor General of Canada, to the Governor General's Innovation Awards at Rideau Hall during Canadian Innovation Week. Met angel mentor and investor Jean-Simon Venne, co-founder and CTO of BrainBox AI. - May 2026: Ingenious+ Ontario Regional Winner, Community and Civic Engagement Innovation, Rideau Hall Foundation ($1,000 grant), for SafeRider. Honoured in Toronto by the Honourable Edith Dumont, Lieutenant Governor of Ontario. - May 2024: Canada-Wide Science Fair National Finalist, Intermediate Division (Digital Technology), Ottawa, for Net Zero Commute. One of about 400 finalists selected from roughly 25,000 young Canadians. - May 2022: Canada-Wide Science Fair Gold Medal and Digital Technology Challenge Award, Junior Division, for Snow SBOT. - 2022: NSERC Young Innovators Award, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. - 2021: Ted Rogers Innovation Award (Ted Rogers Community Grants, Youth Science Canada and Rogers). - 2021: Queen's University IDEAS Initiative Bronze Medal, 3rd place nationally, for CovidEye. - New York Academy of Sciences Junior Academy Finalist, selected from a competitive international pool with roughly a 10% acceptance rate. ### Quinte Regional Science and Technology Fair (competing since Grade 6) 6x Best-in-Grade Gold Medalist, 5x Best in Fair and 40+ awards since 2021. Now an alumni judge and mentor. - Best in Grade Gold Medal: 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026 (Grades 6 to 11) - Best in Fair: 2021 (Junior), 2022 (Intermediate), 2023 (Intermediate), 2024 (Senior), 2026 (Senior) - Dennis Kritzer Computer Science Programming Award: 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026 - Panch Yogeswaran Engineering, Robotics and AI Award: 2022, 2023, 2024, 2026 - Most Innovative Application of Technology Award (OACETT): 2022, 2024, 2025 - Centre for Workforce Development Futures Award: 2021, 2022 - Professional Engineers Ontario Junior Award: 2021 - Allegra Belleville Best Display Board Award: 2026 ### Contests and certifications - Beaver Computing Challenge, Passed with Distinction, University of Waterloo CEMC (2023) - Euclid Mathematics Contest, University of Waterloo CEMC - Canadian Computing Competition, University of Waterloo CEMC - Blue Ocean Student Entrepreneurs certification, Blue Ocean Strategy ### Community and music - Certificate of Recognition, United Nations Association in Canada, Quinte Branch, presented by Neil Ellis, former MP and Mayor of Belleville (2022) - Top Instrumental Music Student (Trombone), Eastside Secondary School (2024) - Excellence in Performance, Long & McQuade Student Recital (2024) - Kindness Citizen Award, Eastside Secondary School (2023 to 2024) ### Entrance scholarships ($7,000 total) - Western University: $4,000 - University of Ottawa: $1,000 - University of Alberta: $1,000 - Loyalist College: $1,000 ## Leadership and community (300+ volunteer hours) - Founder and Facilitator, Micro:bit Python AI and Robotics Coding Workshops, Belleville Public Library (2024 to present). Founded the library's first coding workshop program, self-funded with science fair prize grants. Designed a full micro:bit, Python, robotics and introductory AI curriculum from scratch and has taught 100+ children aged 7 to 14, with back-to-back full cohorts. The region's first library-hosted micro:bit and AI workshop series. - Youth Wing Leader and Digital Media Coordinator, United Nations Association in Canada, Quinte Branch (since 2014). Leads the branch Youth Wing under the mentorship of the President, building local partnerships around the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Runs the branch website, social media, event certificates and on-site event technology, and helps coordinate 3 annual events with 150+ guests each, performing as the youth pianist. - President, STEAM and Computing Club, Eastside Secondary School. Leads a 30-member club covering rockets, space, mathematics, coding and electronics, and trains for and competes in intercity hackathons individually and as a team. - Peer Tutor, Senior Computer Science (ICS3U and ICS4U), Eastside Secondary School. Semester-long formal peer-tutoring program supporting 30 students plus one-on-one mentoring; tutored students saw 10 to 15% average grade gains, 3 to 4 at-risk students completed the course, and the class had a 100% pass rate. - Technology Leader Ambassador, Eastside Secondary School. Designated technology ambassador to incoming students, reaching roughly 150 prospective students across 3+ feeder schools. - Sponsorship Captain, Relay For Life, Canadian Cancer Society. Designed advertising posters for local businesses in exchange for sponsorships, raising $1,500+ in cash and gift vouchers from 3 major local sponsors and negotiating discounted food for event day. - Judge and Mentor, Alumni Network, Quinte Regional Science and Technology Fair. Evaluates current participants' projects and coaches them in STEM and coding. - LINK Crew Leader (Peer Leadership), Eastside Secondary School. Welcomes Grade 9 students and helps them succeed in high school. ## Academics 95% average in the IB Programme and OSSD at Eastside Secondary School, with the Outstanding Student Award with Honours and Distinction every year since Grade 9. 2024 to 2025 school year: - Grade 10 Honour Roll and Outstanding Student Award - Grade 10 Principles of Mathematics Award - Grade 11 Computer Engineering Award - Grade 11 Physical Education Award - Grade 12 Computer Science Award - Grade 12 Earth and Space Science Award 2023 to 2024 school year: - Grade 9 Honour Roll and Outstanding Student Award - Grade 9 Music Award (Instrumental, Trombone) - Grade 10 Careers Award - Grade 11 Computer Science Award - Kindness Citizen Award ## Technical skills - Languages: Python, MicroPython, C++ (ESP-IDF / Arduino), Java, Swift and SwiftUI, Prolog - AI and computer vision: YOLO26, FOMO, OpenCV, Haar cascades, Edge Impulse, Roboflow - Hardware platforms: Raspberry Pi, ESP32, Arduino, micro:bit - Tools and software: KiCad, Fusion 360, OrcaSlicer, PlatformIO, Firebase, Apple MapKit, Git and GitHub, Visual Studio Code ## Beyond the lab - Karate: Shodan (black belt), Shotokan Karate-Do International Federation of Canada. Earned after 6+ years of training; trains and assists lower-belt students at the Kenzo Dozono dojo and represents the region at karate seminars in other cities. - Piano: Royal Conservatory of Music Level 4 candidate; youth pianist at United Nations Association events with 150+ guests. - Trombone: Top Instrumental Music Student (2024), Grade 9 Music Award, Excellence in Performance at the Long & McQuade Student Recital (2024). - Basketball: point guard, shooting guard and small forward at school and representative level, competing in COSSA and The Coalition Basketball League (U19), playing an age bracket above his own. ## Press coverage 2026 - 13 Oct 2026, Education News Canada: $100,000 awarded to Canadian youth innovators: the 2026 Canada Youth Innovation Competition awards ceremony. https://educationnewscanada.com/article/education/level/k12/3/1222575/the-2026-canada-youth-innovation-competition-awards-ceremony-held-in-toronto.html - 9 Oct 2026, Youth Innovation Awards Foundation: CAD $100,000 in prizes awarded as youth innovation lights up the future (VisionIQ wins the Grand Award). https://cayia.org/blog/cad-100-000-in-prizes-awarded-as-youth-innovation-lights-up-the-future - 4 Jun 2026, Education News Canada: HPEDSB students excel at national science fair. https://educationnewscanada.com/article/education/level/k12/3/1204507/hpedsb-students-excel-at-national-science-fair.html - 1 Jun 2026, The Quinteist: High school students represent Quinte region at Canada-Wide Science Fair, receiving accolades. https://quinteist.com/high-school-students-represent-quinte-region-at-canada-wide-science-fair-receiving-accolades/ - 29 May 2026, Quinte News: Quinte's young scientists shine on national stage at Canada-Wide Science Fair in Edmonton. https://www.quintenews.com/2026/05/29/quintes-young-scientists-shine-on-national-stage-at-canada-wide-science-fair-in-edmonton/ - May 2026, HPEDSB: Canada-Wide Science Fair 2026. https://www.hpedsb.on.ca/news/what_s_new/canada-_wide_science_fair_2026 - 22 May 2026, The Quinteist: AI-powered helmet designed by Belleville student earns national spotlight. https://quinteist.com/ai-powered-helmet-designed-by-belleville-student-earns-national-spotlight/ - 15 May 2026, The Quinteist: Five Quinte youth to travel to Edmonton for national science fair. https://quinteist.com/five-quinte-youth-travelling-to-edmonton-to-compete-in-national-science-fair/ - 14 May 2026, InQuinte.ca: Local student "saferides" his way to provincial recognition. https://www.inquinte.ca/2026/05/local-student-saferides-his-way-to-provincial-recognition/ - 13 May 2026, Quinte News: Grade 11 student recognized for groundbreaking "SafeRider" project. https://www.quintenews.com/2026/05/13/grade-11-student-recognized-for-groundbreaking-saferider-project/ - 13 May 2026, Quinte News: Five students from the Quinte region to compete at 2026 Canada-Wide Science Fair. https://www.quintenews.com/2026/05/13/383639/ - 13 May 2026, InQuinte.ca: Five Quinte students head west for national Science Fair. https://www.inquinte.ca/2026/05/five-quinte-students-head-west-for-national-science-fair/ - 17 Apr 2026, The Quinteist: Local youth compete in the Quinte Regional Science and Technology Fair, five students advance to nationals. https://quinteist.com/local-youth-compete-in-the-quinte-regional-science-and-technology-fair-five-students-advance-to-nationals/ - 16 Apr 2026, Education News Canada: HPEDSB students headed to Canada-Wide Science Fair after success at QRSTF. https://educationnewscanada.com/article/education/level/k12/3/1195117/hpedsb-students-headed-to-canada-wide-science-fair-after-success-at-quinte-regional-science-and-technology-fair.html - 13 Apr 2026, InQuinte.ca: Five students advance to Nationals following successful Science Fair in Belleville. https://www.inquinte.ca/2026/04/five-students-advance-to-nationals-following-successful-science-fair-in-belleville/ - 13 Apr 2026, 91X FM: Another successful year for the Quinte Regional Science and Technology Fair. https://91x.fm/2026/04/13/another-successful-year-for-the-quinte-regional-science-and-technology-fair/ - 12 Apr 2026, Quinte News: Results from the Quinte Regional Science and Technology Fair. https://www.quintenews.com/2026/04/12/381256/ 2024 - 31 May 2024, Quinte News: Team Quinte brings home Science Fair medals. https://www.quintenews.com/2024/05/31/team-quinte-brings-home-science-fair-medals/ - 24 May 2024, Quinte News: Local students head to Canada-wide science fair. https://www.quintenews.com/2024/05/24/331923/ - 7 Apr 2024, Quinte News: Science fair sends local students to national competition. https://www.quintenews.com/2024/04/07/328616/ 2022 - 21 May 2022, Quinte News: Quinte brings home the gold. https://www.quintenews.com/2022/05/21/quinte-brings-home-the-gold/ ## What people say - "It was really inspiring to see the work you did with VisionIQ. You're going to go far Surya!" (Alex Cui, co-founder and CTO, GPTZero) - "We are proud of all Surya has accomplished and know he will accomplish more…" (Scott Berry, co-chair, Quinte Regional Science and Technology Fair, quoted in InQuinte.ca)