NEW DELHI, JULY 27: She was always bright, but now she's among the brightest the world over. Eighteen-year-old Lavanya Sharan of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi, has just earned the distinction of being among ``the world's brightest students''. She was chosen from among participants from 20 countries by Lucent Technologies in its second annual worldwide summit of the Lucent Global Science Scholars programme.Back home, her mother Basabi Bhaumik, a professor of electrical engineering at IIT, Delhi, tries hard to keep the excitement down. She says modestly, ``I think it will be a very good exposure.'' But the beaming face can't hide the pride in her daughter's achievement.As part of her application, on an innovative invention Lavanya wrote about creating a computer chip that would function like a brain. ``She used her imagination and technical details to write her essay,'' says her mother. Lavanya, says Bhaumik, has always been among the toppers. A product of Delhi Public School, R.K. Puram, she has always been a hard worker. ``She has always been among the top seven per cent.'' Lavanya's father, Prof Pankaj Sharan, is a professor of theoretical physics at Jamia Milia University. But, according to her mother, this hasn't influenced her daughter's choice of subject. ``School played a big role in pushing Lavanya towards science. If you're among the toppers, you are pushed towards engineering or medicine,'' she says. But the bright girl has no intention of going overboard over this ``little achievement'', says her mother. ``She is already scared of missing her classes and will have to study hard to make up for the classes she's missed.'' Lavanya joined 200 students from 20countries at the summit that began on Tuesday. She was taken to Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill and shown the way things are done there. The summit will go on till July 28 at Lucent's Headquarters in Murray Hill, New Jersey.According to her mother, Lavanya will have the opportunity to work with researchers and scientists from Bell Labs and their peers. The other student who has been chosen from India is Raghav of Visvesvaraya College of Engineering, Bangalore.
