He became the world’s fastest human calculator after severe head injury

He is the world’s fastest human calculator who helps children defeat their math phobias.

When he was five, Neelakantha Bhanu Prakash fell off his cousin’s scooter when it was hit by a truck, banging his head on the road. Doctors told his parents he could be cognitively impaired the rest of his life. Instead, he became the world’s fastest human computer who helps children defeat their math phobias.

facing a difficult recovery

According to CNN, Bhanu “needed 85 stitches and multiple operations, before doctors put him into a medically induced coma.”When he woke up almost seven days later, the doctors told his parents that Bhanu could be cognitively impaired for the rest of his life due to his head injuries. He spent the next year bedridden.

“That accident changed the way I used to define fun and it is the reason why am here today,” he told CNN.

During his recovery, Bhanu experienced tremendous pain, calling it “the most traumatic experience” he has had in his life, CNN said. Because he couldn’t go to school for a year, he learned “to play chess and solved puzzles to keep his brain engaged,” moving on to math problems, CNN reported.

According to CNN, another factor contributed greatly to the young boy’s determination to get better. After 85 stitches and multiple operations, Bhanu had an “ugly looking scar.” His parents, worried about their son’s feelings, “removed all mirrors from around the house for a year.”

Bhanu, however, “was determined to not let the scar define him,” CNN stated. He said the scar drove him “forward and I knew there’s something that I am good at and I will prove myself there.”

This belief helped to set him on his path, leading him to help children defeat their math phobias.

winning awards helps to set him on his path

Two years after the accident, when he was seven, Bhanu “finished third in the sub-junior category at a state level speed arithmetic competition in Andhra Pradesh state,” CNN said in the story. He told CNN his “performance brought his father to tears,” because “it was what led me there that moved my father.”

According to CNN, since then Bhanu has “secured many wins, including the open category in India’s 2011 National Speed Arithmetic Competition.” When he was 13, CNN said, Bhanu “represented India in international competition” and broke “four world records for fastest human calculation, power multiplication, super subtraction, and mental math: powers of 2 and 3.”

He’s also broken 50 Lima records, earning comparisons with legendary Indian mathematician Shakuntala Devi, CNN reported.

In August, 2020, Bhanu became the first Asian “to win gold at the Mental Calculation World Championship at the Mind Sports Olympiad (MSO) in London, CNN said. He was also the “first non-European winner in the event’s history with that win, CNN said.

Because his speed in solving problems was so fast, judges “made him jump through extra hoops and solve more calculations to confirm his accuracy,” CNN wrote, adding that he “beat 29 opponents from 13 countries to take the gold.”

helping children defeat their math phobias

When Bhanu visited a rural government school in India, he told CNN that was when he realized “kids there did not know that multiplication is repetitive addition. That’s what struck a chord and that’s when I began my firm.”

In 2018, CNN reported, he “founded Exploring Infinities, an educational organization that aims to make math cool, challenging, interesting and immersive, by tracking cognitive ability development through arithmetic games.”

Through Exploring Infinities, now known as Bhanzu, Bhanu emphasizes “that anyone can improve their math skills and make the world a better place.”

The organization, which had half a million subscribers in 2020, “works at the grassroots level in India and, pre-coronavirus, organized math boot camps in Bangladesh and Indonesia. Its digital learning program also has students from the United Kingdom and United States,” CNN reported.

“I don’t want to be the face of mathematics – there are enough of those, and they are exceptional,” Bhanu told CNN. “I want to be the face against math phobia. Very simple.”

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