A BSKL Student at MIT: Karanvir's Transformative Visit

When Year 10 student Karanvir joined BSKL in January 2025, little did he know that he would be taking a trip of a lifetime to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in November of the same year.

After he joined the school, he heard about the competition among Nord Anglia Education (NAE) schools, where selected students would go on a trip to the institute, renowned for its science and technology research. He immediately signed up for it.

“My idea for a project is to capture car emissions – a major source of pollution in India – into tanks, and by mixing hydrogen and some catalysts such as Amines or Alkali, it can be turned into ethanol and methane, which is used as fuel,” he said.

He said the idea took him one week to think of, and the preparation for the presentation took him a month to complete.

His idea and project got him through, and out of the 600 NAE schools’ students that participated, Karanvir was selected as the only representative of BSKL to go to MIT.

“I felt that this was unexpected. I was happy and ecstatic, as I was selected even though I was only in BSKL for a few months. It was a huge thing and a great achievement. I also would like to thank Mr Karl Lo for helping me understand the challenges and my presentation during the MIT-STEAM CCA,” he said.

During the trip, he met with many Professors and visited several labs, interacting with MIT students whenever there were mealtimes at their food halls.

“My most memorable moment came when I participated in Project Day, which required me to work with three students from other NAE schools to explore if there are electromagnetic fields in zero gravity,” he said.

Karanvir also said his interaction with students and teachers from other NAE schools also brought him different insights.

“I get to see and experience different cultures and languages, but we are all engaged and curious to learn. I also enjoyed talking to the teachers. It was informative,” he said.

He added that the trip was great and he is seriously looking into the courses offered by MIT.

“This MIT trip has opened my eyes to engineering as a potential course of study. It made me consider the US as a study destination. I was also looking at some business courses offered by the university,” he said.

Karanvir also said he will expand on his project idea by building a small prototype using CO2 tanks, as it would be impossible to capture car emissions.

“Whenever I have the time, I would write a research paper about the project detailing how this can be applied in real life,” he said.

For those looking to participate in the NAE competition for a place in the MIT Student Trip in the year 2026, Karanvir has a few words of advice.

“Think the idea through, don’t think of ideas that are not realistic. Secondly, do your research well, make a nice presentation that is clearly structured, and the data is well presented,” he said.

Be a part of BSKL and NAE to enjoy more global opportunities. For more information, book a tour now.