The blue glow of a laptop screen illuminates a single open notebook on a desk. A dozen browser tabs stay open in the window, digital links to old primary sources and databases of American history. For senior Farhan Ansari, the joy of his Near Mitra project about analyzing the similarities and differences of Nazi German beliefs and early American manifest destiny settler ideology isn’t found in a physical library, but the meticulous search through the internet’s deepest historical corners.

“I’m a pretty self-motivated person because it would be a real waste not to live up to one’s potential,” Farhan said. “I have a lot of respect for people who can not only transfer knowledge but create it. That’s something that I am inspired to do with my work. I am very much drawn to the idea of making a contribution to the world’s knowledge.”

However, the path toward creating that knowledge is rarely a smooth one. For every breakthrough in his projects, there came hours of stagnation. Farhan also struggled with completing the code for his computer science research project named remote photoplethysmography (rPPG), focused on measuring human heart rates through compressed video. 

His entrance into exploring the field of rPPG began during a summer program when Farhan asked his advisor about the most interesting applications of coding that they were learning. When the mentor described the ability to pull a heartbeat from a simple video feed, Farhan saw this as more than just an interesting trick; he saw a solution for accessibility, even though his iteration process was far from perfect. 

“There were a lot of times when I felt like quitting,” Farhan said. “There were a lot of cases where the program wasn’t working or I was debugging for like many hours and it just feels like you’re getting nowhere. In those moments, it can be incredibly frustrating at times, and incredibly rewarding at times. However, the difficulty did make it a lot more rewarding — my projects wouldn’t be significant to me if they were easy pursuits.”

The blossoming of his love for history sparked with his tenth grade history class and peaked in history teacher James Tate’s AP United States History class. Now, Tate is his Near-Mitra adviser, offering support during research and meeting with Farhan regularly to check on progress. Tate reflects on Farhan’s deep analytical thinking on seemingly surface-level subjects.

“I’ve gotten to appreciate the fact that he thinks on a much more theoretical and meta level than most high schoolers,” Tate said. “He’s able to express his ideas very clearly, even given the amount of abstract thoughts he has. He’s really excellent at expressing himself in the written word and in thinking more abstractly than his peers.” 

Close friend senior Ram Batchu and Farhan initially grew closer due to their mutual love for anime. Ram highlights his open mindedness during conversations, as Farhan expresses his thoughts outwardly yet still remains an attentive listener. 

“I can say anything around him, and I don’t need to have a filter,” Ram said. “He’s just made my life a lot more enjoyable, especially these past few years, just talking with him. Whether politics, history, computer science or math, he always knows what he’s talking about and he’s a great teacher.” 

Beyond academics, Farhan finds the most fulfillment from spending time with his friends. Close friend senior Rishi Radhakrishna has known Farhan for 12 years and underscores their unchanged conversation dynamic even after more than a decade. 

 “We share the same sense of humor, so talking to him is very easy,” Rishi said. “He says what he wants to say, at least around me, so it makes it pretty funny just talking to him. He’s definitely more reserved when he’s talking to people he doesn’t know as well, so it’s kind of exclusive in that sense.”

Farhan believes that unpopular ideas are just as valuable to the spotlight as the popular ones, both in history and in daily life. He accentuates that anything as basic as a physical fitness for credit class can objectively leave lasting beneficial impacts.

“Taking classes that you might not think you enjoy can definitely lead to unexpected outcomes,” Farhan said. “In 10th grade I took the PE class with one of my friends, and we spent a lot of time together every other day. I had a great time hanging out with him for an hour every other day, and that’s sort of the good memories I have from unexpected classes.”