Parthiv and his award-winning project at the 2018 ISEF.

Although the 2018 Minnesota State Science and Engineering Fair (MSSEF) was only two years ago, Parthiv Krishna’s experience in the fair has already greatly impacted his STEM pathway. For his project, Development of Autonomous Unmanned Aerial Systems for Semi-Dense Point Cloud Generation in Disaster Scenarios, Parthiv developed hardware and software for an autonomous drone that creates full-color 3D maps. He took home a slew of awards for his project, including the Seagate Rising Star Award and the second place 3M Science Award (see the complete list below). He also won a spot to represent Minnesota in the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), where he picked up a fourth award in the Robotics and Intelligent Machines category.

Reflecting on his MSSEF experience, Parthiv remembered “it was quite inspirational to talk to the judges and hear their feedback on the project.” Following the advice of several Seagate judges, Parthiv pursued a patent on the drone technology he developed for the MSSEF. Parthiv used his MSSEF and ISEF award money to assist in funding the patent process and to purchase parts for further drone development. After obtaining a patent, Parthiv began the company Fractal Aerial Systems, and is in contact with several emergency services departments and defense contractors about using his technology for their services.

In addition to spinning his science fair project into Fractal Aerial Systems, Parthiv has continued many of his other high school pursuits in college. Parthiv was involved in Minnetonka High School’s FIRST Robotics Competition, Alpine Ski Team, Science Bowl, and Science Olympiad. Currently a freshman at Stanford University pursuing a B.S. in Electrical Engineering with a minor in Music, Parthiv is a member of Stanford's Robotics Club, Harmonics a cappella group, and the Ski Team.

Parthiv is passionate about applying the skills and knowledge he is gaining at Stanford to continue developing his drone research. In his science fair presentation, Parthiv focused on the potential for drones to assist first responders during disasters. However, Parthiv asserts that his research has many possible applications and “the technology is versatile and could be applied to various problems and industries.” He is excited about the future of the company, adding “I'm continuing to work on further iterations of the project and hope to bring the technology to the market soon!”