By Asia Samachar | Malaysia |
Balvinder Kaur Dhillon has once again etched her name into the annals of academic excellence—becoming the first and only engineering student to win the Global Undergraduate Award in Engineering for two consecutive years, an honour often dubbed the “Junior Nobel Prize.”
The Global Undergraduate Awards, widely regarded as the world’s leading academic recognition programme for undergraduate work, received 3,567 submissions this year from 352 universities across 99 countries. Balvinder’s project ranked among the top 1% globally, according to Queen Mary University of London’s official announcement.
Her award-winning paper—“Developing a Multimodal Deep Learning Pipeline for Automated Glioma Subregion Segmentation and 3D Reconstruction with Integrated Spatial Analysis for Clinical Insight”—bridges artificial intelligence, robotics, and healthcare. Conducted during her final year of an MEng in Biomedical Engineering at Queen Mary University of London, the research was supervised by Professor Zion Tse and Dr. Hadi Sadati.
Reflecting on her journey, Balvinder told Asia Samachar: “Across the last few years, the biggest lesson I’ve learned is that progress rarely comes from sudden breakthroughs. It comes from consistency, small steps that compound over time, and a genuine curiosity to challenge assumptions and push beyond the status quo.”
Hailing from Teluk Intan, Perak, Balvinder recently graduated with top honours and is now pursuing a Master’s in Human and Biological Robotics at Imperial College London.
With this latest achievement, she joins an elite group: only two individuals in the history of the Global Undergraduate Awards have secured back-to-back wins—and Balvinder is the sole double-winner in the Engineering category.
BALVINDER KAUR’S STORY, IN HER OWN WORDS
Winning the Global Winner award for Engineering for the second time is something I am still processing. It’s a privilege, and it means a lot to me, not because of the award itself but because of the work behind it. My submissions over the past two years spanned two very different areas of biomedical engineering: one in biomaterials and the latest in machine learning. Both were shaped by countless hours of refinement, learning, and intentional effort.
Across the last few years, the biggest lesson I have learned is that progress rarely comes from sudden breakthroughs. It comes from consistency, small steps that compound over time, and a genuine curiosity to challenge assumptions and push beyond the status quo. However, I strongly believe that achievements like this should not be viewed as rare exceptions but as examples of what becomes possible when we invest in our people, our communities and the environments that allow potential to grow.
Our community has a long history of excellence and innovation with figures like Narinder Singh Kapany, the father of fibre optics, and Harvinder Sahota, the inventor of modern-day stent treatment. They have expanded the boundaries of what Sikhs are known for in global space. This legacy should not be passive and only celebrated, it should be something we actively build upon.
I hope that this encourages more young Sikhs to aim high and dream big, not only in scientific academia but in any field, the arts or startups. Equally, I hope it motivates our organisations and families to support their dreams at every stage. We are entering a world of constant change and our community’s strength will depend on how boldly we support the next generation to take a risk and step into it.
The only real limit any of us have is the one we place on our own minds. Work hard, stay curious, question the status quo, and do not be afraid to push into spaces where we are underrepresented. If my story inspires at least one Sikh person to feel that these spaces are accessible to them, then I have done a bit of justice to the cause.
If anyone would like to speak more about how we, as a community, can grow our presence in these fields, please feel free to reach out. I would love to help build an initiative that supports and develops Sikh talent at any age.
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Teluk Intan girl wins ‘junior nobel prize’ for engineering (Asia Samachar, 21 Nov 2024)
ASIA SAMACHAR is an online newspaper for Sikhs / Punjabis in Southeast Asia and beyond. You can leave your comments at our website, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. We will delete comments we deem offensive or potentially libelous. You can reach us via WhatsApp +6017-335-1399 or email: asia.samachar@gmail.com. For obituary announcements, click here
