Sheshank Shankar was 8 years old when he started to learn how to code. Seven years later, the high school student has years of real-world computer science experience under his belt and he’s setting his sights on a career that could involve teaching and research.
Sheshank, a 15-year-old junior at Eastlake High School, is GeekWire’s Junior Geek of the Month for August, a monthly honor presented by Northern Trust, which recognizes talented young innovators, creators and entrepreneurs in the Pacific Northwest.
“Both of my parents are software engineers, so they taught me really well,” Sheshank said. “At 8 I started making simple HTML / CSS websites, and then I transferred into learning with JavaScript as well.”
Sheshank’s parents both work at Microsoft, and he called the software giant’s co-founders, Bill Gates and the late Paul Allen, a great inspiration.
“Both of them also started coding at a really young age. So I think that was something that inspired me to start learning,” he said.
Beyond getting himself in front of a machine at such a young age, Sheshank has demonstrated a desire to share his knowledge from early on. He has volunteered at assorted coding camps, teaching Python, Scratch and robotics coding to elementary school students. He also started his own camp where he taught JavaScript to middle school students.
At Eastlake, Sheshank is vice president of the school’s computer science honor society, which has about 100 members. This year they plan to start a CS Council that will help teach computer science to middle and elementary school students in the region. The teen was also elected to be state treasurer for Washington Technology Student Association, which prepares students for futures in science, technology, engineering and math.
Sheshank is currently a software engineer intern at AI Thinktank, an artificial intelligence startup in Bellevue, Wash. And he’s a data science researcher for PathCheck Foundation, an organization that started at MIT with the goal of finding digital solutions to containing COVID-19, including contact tracing apps.
“I’m working with a research team there,” Sheshank said of his virtually enabled duties at PathCheck. “We’re using machine learning methods on Bluetooth and other phone sensor data to effectively try and predict if two phones are close in proximity for contact tracing purposes.”
It’s a lot to take on for anyone, much less a kid, but Sheshank has been inspired by others in his life who put in long hours and hard work chasing dreams. And there’s more.
Sheshank is involved with the Seattle team for DefHacks, an international non-profit organization dedicated to providing immersive learning experiences for students in computer science. With the help of fellow Eastlake students Nathan Yap, Julian Lee and Ron Pechuk, and due to the ongoing pandemic, Sheshank helped organize a virtual version of DefHacks’ 2020 worldwide hackathon in June. The event, with speakers such as former GitHub CEO Tom Preston-Werner, attracted more than 1,300 students from 54 countries.
When he attended his first in-person DefHacks hackathon in Seattle, he wasn’t even sure what a hackathon was.
“I thought, ‘OK, so there’s a 36-hour event where you just code the whole time?’ I didn’t think it would be that engaging,” Sheshank said. “It was much more interesting than I thought, with free workshops and professional mentors to guide me on my project. I was really inspired and later applied to join the organizing team for the Seattle group.”
And now, based on his success in running the virtual event, he’s been promoted to CEO of the organization, and his future focus has shifted to teaching. He plans to start a new program called CS Outreach, which will provide free, project-based curriculum for students around the world.
“I think it’s really important because we all live in the Seattle area where there’s tons of tech startups,” Sheshank said. “High schoolers like me can reach out to one of the billion startups in Seattle and eventually find some sort of tech-related internship. In addition, almost all the high schools in our area have some sort of a computer science course.”
Those opportunities aren’t readily available for students in many other areas. And Sheshank wants to give more students more experience, providing those who take and pass the DefHacks program an internship with the organization, which is a great addition to any resume.
He’ll have plenty to show off on his own resume when he finishes high school and takes off for whatever is next. Right now, he said he wants to pursue a PhD in computer science, preferably in machine learning, and he likes the idea of MIT. But his future goals are always shifting.
“If you’d asked me this last year, I would’ve probably said I wanted to start a startup,” Sheshank said. “But this year my goal has shifted to becoming a professor to teach more students and potentially run my own research lab.”
Wherever he goes, he said he wants there to be lots to do, lots of research opportunity — and he wants it to be “hard.”
And for now, he’s got more to do at home — and more teaching — with an 8-year-old brother who is following in his computer science footsteps.
“My parents are always asking me to teach him how to code,” Sheshank said.
Nominate a Junior Geek
GeekWire will feature a new Junior Geek of the Month in profiles meant to capture how they are looking to make a positive impact on the world through their geeky pursuits. In addition, they’ll receive special recognition from our project partner, Northern Trust.
Do you know an exceptional Junior Geek between the ages of 12 to 20 who is going to change the world? Submit a nomination.
Nominees must be residents of the Pacific Northwest, and parental information must be included for those nominees under the age of 18. Jr. Geeks may nominate themselves but please be sure to include your parent or guardian’s contact information.
