London:

A Calcutta-based computing science graduate entered the final leg of Britain’s “toughest” TV quiz competition by answering a series of complex questions as part of a university team.

Sourajit Debnath, 31, will join Imperial College London’s four-man squad to go head-to-head with University College London (UCL) in Monday’s televised final of BBC’s University Challenge.

In a clip from the show aired this week, Debnath can be seen donning a red and black kurta as she dominates a series of bonus questions in the BAFTA-winning video game.

Mr Dehnatt said: “I am honored to have the opportunity to be part of the history of this historic British institution.”

“This year’s Imperial team is exceptionally well-rounded, with each teammate having their own choice, or to borrow quiz parlance, a major. All other things being equal, I cover math, physics, and general science, as well as the popular humanities side Culture,” he shared.

Mr. Debnath received his MSc in Applied Computational Science and Engineering from the Department of Earth Sciences and Engineering at Imperial College London, choosing to move into computational science after completing his degree.

In India, he is a space scientist at UR Rao Space Center, the spacecraft manufacturing arm of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), where he worked on the 2019 Indian lunar lander/rover mission Chandrayaan-2 and other space device.

After graduating from Imperial College London, he joined an Imperial startup focused on geophysical algorithms operating out of the university’s Royal School of Mines.

When asked about the UK as a higher education destination for Indian students, he said: “The UK is a friendly and welcoming country for students, but as an overseas citizen, getting funding for PhD courses is quite difficult.”

Dubbed by the BBC as “the toughest quiz team championship on television”, the University Challenge, hosted by British Indian broadcaster Amol Rajan, attracts teams of students representing top universities across the UK to be crowned quiz champions.

During last week’s semi-final against the University of Manchester, Mr Debnat answered several challenging questions, including one with an Indian twist, looking for ingredients for panch phoron (five spice mixture) from the description below Name: “The small seed-like fruit of the parsley family, called Jeera in Hindi”? Cumin’s answer is probably one of the simplest answers that Bengali students have come across so far in the tough competition.

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