Sritej Padmanabhan is a highschool senior from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with a passion for cognitive science, telehealth technologies, and uplifting voiceless communities.

Inspired by the lack of access to quality neurologists in rural populations and disabled patients, Sritej explored methods to create quantitative digital healthcare a reality. As a result, he developed one of the first telehealth technologies (ParkinSense) for the quantitative monitoring of Parkinson’s disease, one that his grandfather could actively utilize. ParkinSense is a biomechanics-informed tool that utilizes advanced pose-estimation algorithms to analyze human-body focal points via an iPhone or a Desktop camera.

Sritej’s specialty comes in translating research into real-world impact. Moreover, he collaborated with specialists, and his tech was approved and used by various UPMC neurologists. He additionally received a provisional patent in 2025 and was featured on Harvard’s TestMyBrain, with over 5,000 participants, translating his technologies to real-world use. Sritej’s exploration into the intersection of human biology and video-analysis also led him to become a research assistant at the Swanson School of Engineering’s ENIGMA Lab, where he researched brain-inspired computer architectures for addressing the famous Moravec’s Paradox (Sritej published this research). Knowing he needed more knowledge on human motor-control and learning to inform his tools, Sritej became a research assistant at Carnegie Mellon University’s Physical Intelligence Lab, publishing two papers (first-author + second-author). His journey through computer vision, telehealth, motor-learning, and machine intelligence has strengthened him as a learner and fighter in the science research community.

Outside of his research pursuits, Sritej is an active member in his community. Noticing a lack of access to qualified research opportunities for underrepresented youth (ie. low-income, minorities), he began a 501c(3) organization: The Youth Research Initiative (YRI). YRI has allowed Sritej to directly work with those who never saw research as a possibility, and guide them to solving real-world problems they are passionate about. His advocacy led him to become one of the youngest speakers at SXSW EDU & The National Future Forward Conference, where he spoke directly to educators and industry experts on how they could help. At his Pittsburgh VA, Sritej runs the VetTechCenter, where he teaches thousands of veterans how to utilize telehealth technologies like MyHealtheVet, hoping to destigmatize technology for them.

In his spare time, Sritej enjoys playing the flute as part of the Pittsburgh Youth Concert Orchestra, watching movies with his sisters + friends (Check out Movie Reviews Section), and writing pieces on psychology + philosophy. In the future, Sritej aspires to combine his interests in cognitive science + digital health + philosophy, to foster a strong community where ethical technologies unite the silenced patients of our world.