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CHENNAI: S Chandra Sekar is a Microsoft Certified professional, youngest Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer and a Cisco Certified Network Associate. He has now joined the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, for an MTech in computer science. What is the big deal? He is only 15 years old and enjoying the limelight.

On August 4, this teenager from Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu became the youngest to join IIT-Madras to do an M Tech. He scored 99.32% in the graduate aptitude test in engineering, required to join the course.

"My goal is to serve the nation. My area of study would be information security and cryptography. Network security has become important because of increasing net transfers. Almost all industries need it for safe transfer of
data that would reach only the intended destination. I am working with my professors to identify the specific aspects of information security," Chandra Sekar, whose role model is Infosys chief mentor N R Narayana Murthy, told TOI.

The only people who are not surprised are his auditor-father and banker-mother. "The admission was expected as he was aiming for it," said his father K Subramaniam, who had initiated his son into computers at the age of four. "We realised his talent at a tender age and introduced him to Microsoft quality test that helped him get the certifications."

It was at the age of 10 that Chandra Sekar came into the limelight for his expertise in computers. As a child prodigy, he had begun programming on his own when he was eight. At nine, he was a Microsoft certified professional and earned the youngest Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer Certificate at 10.

The following year he got the Cisco Certified Network Associate certificate. These are achievements that usually students make in the latter part of their 20s.

Chandra Sekar was given double promotions at Bell Matriculation Higher Secondary School in Tirunelveli and he completed schooling when he was 12. He then did Bachelors in computer application from Kalasalingam College of Engineering at Srivilliputtur, under Manonmaniam Sundaranar University. He even published a paper on 'Intrusion Detection Systems: A Survey' last September.

No doubt his parents are not awed at their son's achievements. And Chandra Sekar is enjoying all the attention, which he said does not put pressure on his studies. "Popularity and studies are independent aspects. I deal with them independently."

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