From DIY to Clinical Trials: How Three High Schoolers Are Building a BCI for Epilepsy
- Dominic Borkelmans
- 1 day ago
- 6 min read
While most high school seniors are focused on their college applications, Nikhil, Vishresh, and Anika are worrying about product design and clinical trials. At just 17 years old, they founded a BCI company, Neuropod. They hope to one day bring to market a non-invasive monitoring device that can predict, with clinical accuracy, the onset of seizures. With several awards already under their belt, Nikhil and the team are moving full steam ahead, transforming their DIY project into a legitimate venture.
What is perhaps most striking is that the idea to build a BCI wasn’t born from a science fair project or designed to get them into their dream university. For the Neuropod team, the goal is to address a serious, unmet clinical need. While their young age might make the idea seem unrealistic from the outside, the teenagers are doing everything you’d expect from a senior neurotech founder. All while balancing the other challenges and excitements of being teenagers.
How to start a BCI company in high school
The story of Neuropod began a few years ago, when Nikhil Krishnaswamy and Vishresh Deepak, students of Cupertino High School, submitted a paper to their local science fair on how software could predict the onset of seizures. Both have family members diagnosed with epilepsy, and seeing them struggle with the disease motivated them to act. However, they knew that a paper written by two high school students would not make a real impact on the lives of their family or the broader epilepsy community.
And so, a year ago, they recruited their classmate Anika Mukherjee to help turn their software solution into a hardware product. They realized that while they could now build models for seizure prediction, actually gathering the input data still required expensive and complex EEG headsets. Combining their skills, they set out to prototype a simple EEG device that feeds data to an iOS app, where machine learning models predict, in real time, the onset of seizures up to 30 minutes in advance. Using reinforcement learning, the system adapts to each individual.
Though their family knows that even forgetting medication once can lead to potentially fatal seizures, it’s the daily uncertainty, not knowing whether the medication will work or if a seizure might strike that day, that is really bothering them. This psychological burden is what the Neuropod BCI aims to remove. “The idea is to provide peace of mind and reduce that constant uncertainty. That’s really the impact we want to have,” Nikhil says.
However, with no PhDs or professional engineering experience, they face a difficult road ahead. At their high school, the team took an introductory circuits course. “It’s like a college-level course, but even that isn’t enough to design your own circuits,” Nikhil says. So they turned to the internet. “We watched a lot of YouTube videos, read blogs and Substack posts, and used open-source code from GitHub. We also used AI tools to help us learn.”
Armed with a repository of self-taught skills and knowledge, the team opted for a mastoid-based BCI, the most stable location on the head for an EEG to reduce activity-induced noise and artifacts. The prototype uses a series of op-amps to filter and amplify the signal before sending it to a Bluetooth module, which then transmits the data to their app. So far, they have worked with a breadboard kit for the prototype, which, thanks to their DIY approach and focus on building a functional, easy-to-use device, has been inexpensive to build.
Through research grants and awards, including winning national competitions like the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow Challenge and international events like the Conrad Challenge, the Neuropod team has secured the funds to buy the main components, like a printed circuit board, for their first demo product.
The costs of being (too) young and ambitious
While their idea is strong and their progress steady, Nikhil says the team is still often underestimated because of their age. “The first question is always, ‘How did you guys do this?’ or, ‘You’re so young,’” he says. And since the project isn’t linked to a school course, they don’t receive any special treatment from the high school. “Even when we flew out for competitions, they didn’t give us excused absences,” Nikhil adds.
Balancing the demands of building a neurotech venture with graduating high school is no easy feat. “There are definitely some weeks when someone’s traveling or not feeling well,” Nikhil says. “But we still have a to-do list and things we want to get done, so it just keeps going. It hasn’t been easy, we had testing the week after we got back from The Conrad Challenge in Houston, and we were basically preparing our pitch while studying for AP exams.”
The biggest challenge, however, won’t be building the product, but clinically validating it. So far, testing has been done using synthetic data, without involving real patients yet. It’s a significant hurdle, but one Nikhil and the team aren’t facing alone. “We’re working with a couple of people to help us secure NIH grants or take other steps toward FDA approval,” Nikhil says. “We want to make sure we’re doing our due diligence, and we’re not afraid to ask for help.”
What makes the Neuropod team stand out
Nikhil carries an air of naivety when he speaks, not from a lack of understanding, but from the quiet assumption that everyone around him knows just as much as they do. It’s the kind of naivety that comes not from ignorance, but from immersion: when you’ve spent so long wrestling with the complexity of something, it stops feeling daunting and starts to feel obvious.
“There are other people building things, but I wouldn’t say they’re as serious about it as we are,” Nikhil says. “A lot of people build a project for college applications or just to prove they can make something. But ours is deeply rooted in passion. We’ve seen the struggles of our family, and we want to actually make a change in this field.”
"It hasn't been easy. We were basically preparing our pitch while studying for AP exams."
This passion has certainly driven the team to hit the ground running and overcome many of the early challenges in building their venture. In the summers, you can find Nikhil, Vishresh, and Anika at Stanford’s summer program, working in labs on mouse models, spike sorting, or hands-on with EEGs. In the evenings, they head to the nearby San Francisco tech hub for neuroscience events, where they meet experienced entrepreneurs in the field.
“Almost every week there’s some sort of event at Stanford where you can go and talk to people,” Nikhil says. “Being around these kinds of people pushes you. In some ways, it’s good, but in other ways, it feels like a rat race, where everyone’s thinking, ‘Okay, what can I build? How can I one-up this person?’” Overall, though, the team likes the local hustle and bustle. “I think we thrive in this kind of environment, it’s not slow or monotonous. Every day brings something new.”
What’s next for the young entrepreneurs and their venture
With their senior year approaching, the Neuropod team have a packed schedule ahead. They’re busy setting up their first wearable demo and deliberating on how to approach clinical validation. They’ve already completed a competitive market analysis and recognize the product’s strong potential for the future.
After being covered in a local paper, the team has also started receiving a lot of attention. Through their website, they’ve received hundreds of messages from epilepsy patients and their families asking how they can support the mission. Neuropod has always relied on an open-source, community-based approach to building its product, drawing on a network of local entrepreneurs and researchers as well as a wide range of online resources. Now, their mission is spreading through the community, with more and more people eager to see them win.
High school won’t last forever, and soon Nikhil, Vishresh, and Anika will begin their college application process. That could mean the three Neuropod founders won’t be in the same place for much longer. But even if they head off to top universities across the country, their mission at Neuropod won’t be left to rest. “It’s just another hurdle we’ll have to deal with,” Nikhil says.
And so, the team keeps building, both their product and the community that’s helping them succeed. As they face the next hurdle on their road to improving the lives of their family and every patient with epilepsy, they know they can make it happen, because the people who believe in them aren’t just watching. They’re helping build it.
About the founder
Nikhil Krishnaswamy, Vishresh Deepak, and Anika Mukherjee are the co-founders of Neuropod, a student-led neurotechnology startup. All three are still in high school, where they balance their studies with building a non-invasive BCI device to predict epileptic seizures in real time. Their motivation is deeply personal, both Nikhil and Vishresh have siblings with epilepsy, and their work has already earned them recognition at national and international competitions, including the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow Challenge and the Conrad Challenge.
About the firm
Neuropod is an early-stage neurotechnology startup developing a wearable, non-invasive brain-computer interface to predict seizures up to 30 minutes before they occur. Combining low-cost EEG hardware with machine learning models, the device is designed to adapt to each patient through reinforcement learning, offering greater peace of mind to people living with epilepsy. Founded on an open-source, community-driven model, Neuropod collaborates with researchers, entrepreneurs, and patient advocates to advance toward clinical validation and FDA approval.
Neuropod has launched a fundraising campaign to bring their product to life. You can support them here: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/neuropod-smart-seamless-seizure-prediction#/