Chirayu Shishodiya studied A-Levels in Maths, Further Maths, Economics and Business Studies at Richmond upon Thames College from 2007-2009. After finishing his studies at the college, he gained a BEng in Computing from Imperial College London.
Since then, Chirayu worked for Redgate Software developing software products for database professionals and founded an organic fertiliser start-up in India. Currently, he is working as a software developer for an artificial intelligence (AI) start-up which scores all UK companies based on their likelihood of buying a certain product or service. He gathers insights from different sources, works with big data and builds AI models to recommend companies to clients.
About his time at Richmond upon Thames College, Chirayu said, “I cultivated a love for Mathematics while I was at Richmond upon Thames College. My teacher, Geoff Woodhouse, introduced us to various famous proofs and theorems, gave us an insight into the minds of brilliant mathematicians like Gauss and made Mathematics fun. He also very selflessly taught students extra classes over lunch to prepare us for STEP Mathematics exams (universities ask students to sit these exams when applying for Maths based degrees).
“I enjoyed the challenge of working on hard problems and learned so much about computing and programming. I wrote my first programme in my Computing A-Level course. It gave me a lot of joy and I ended up studying Computing at university and am currently working as a software developer. I also started road cycling for the first time during my college years, which I still do and it’s my favourite way of getting around London.”
From his time at college, Chirayu learned how to manage time and workloads. Another aspect he learnt was dealing with rejection as he received an offer letter from Cambridge University, but then failed the entry exams. He remembers, “being absolutely heartbroken over this and at the time it seemed life defining. Little did I know that an amazing time awaits me at Imperial College.”