Leadership at 16 Years Old... Founder, Patents and Building Before You Feel Ready, with Arya Upadhyay

What if leadership has nothing to do with age and everything to do with the courage to take action?

In this inspiring episode of Unapologetic Leadership, Cory Dunham sits down with Arya Upadhyay, a 16-year-old researcher, inventor, founder, and electrical and computer engineering student whose work is already making an impact on some of the world's biggest challenges. A high school graduate at just 15 years old, Arya has earned two patents and is developing groundbreaking solutions in biodegradable nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, and environmental sustainability.

Arya shares the story behind her decision to graduate early, the challenges of entering college at 16, and how stepping into unfamiliar environments taught her resilience, independence, and self leadership. She explains why failure has been her greatest mentor, why confidence comes from taking action instead of waiting for certainty, and how learning through experimentation has shaped both her personal growth and her innovations.

The conversation explores her pioneering work developing a biodegradable nanorobot designed to detect microplastics in soil while naturally decomposing without harming the environment. She also discusses her second patent, an AI powered behavioral prediction system that helps improve patient engagement by using technology to encourage healthy habits instead of unhealthy distractions.

Throughout the episode, Arya shares practical insights on staying focused in a world full of distractions, using social media intentionally, trusting the process even when results aren't immediate, and embracing uncertainty as an essential part of leadership. Her message is simple but powerful: leadership isn't about authority. It's about seeing a problem, taking responsibility, and building a solution.

About Arya Upadhyay

Arya Upadhyay is a researcher, inventor, and founder who graduated high school at 15 and has spent the years since building systems instead of waiting for permission. A student of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UT Austin, she holds two patents, has been featured in national media outlets, and leads research at the intersection of biodegradable nanotechnology, AI, and environmental sustainability.

Her work focuses on designing intelligent systems that solve real-world problems, from soil microplastics to predictive behavioral engines, while challenging conventional thinking about innovation and leadership. Arya believes leadership is not about authority, but about having the clarity and courage to see a problem, name it, and build a solution anyway.

Connect with Arya

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arya-upadhyay/
Instagram: @arya.upadhyayy
Email: arya.upadhyay@utexas.edu 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Welcome to Unapologetic Leadership. If you felt stressed, overwhelmed, wrestling with the imposter syndrome, wondering if you're just not good enough, then this podcast is for you. So here's your host, Corey Dunham.

SPEAKER_02 0:21

Welcome to this episode of Unapologetic Leadership, where I have Aria Upad DI, who is a researcher, inventor, and founder who graduated high school at 15 years old and has spent the years since building systems instead of waiting for permission. A student of electrical and computer engineering at UT Austin, Aria I holds two patents, has been featured in national media outlets, and leads research at the intersection of biodegradable nanotechnology, AI, and environmental sustainability. Her work focuses on designing intelligence systems that solve real-world problems from soil microplastics to predictive behavioral engines while challenging the structures that shape how we think about innovation and leadership. Aria believes leadership is not about authority, but about clarity and the courage to see a problem, name it, and build it anyway. Welcome, Aria.

SPEAKER_00 1:23

Thank you for having me on the show, Corey. Excited to be here.

SPEAKER_02 1:27

Yes, you're welcome. You're welcome. So tell us how you impact the world, who you serve, and what you do, because you have a lot of things going on, which is awesome.

SPEAKER_00 1:36

Yeah, thank you. So I'm essentially a microplastic researcher and I focus on biodegradable sustainability. So one of my patents is on a biodegradable nanorobot. Essentially, what we do is we're able to detect the amount of microplastic in soil. So typically, when an average user wants to detect the amount of plastic in their soil, it's expensive, it requires a lot of technologies, and it's also very invasive. So we're building technology that's able to help detect and basically be able to degrade enough itself. So the robot is able to detect the microplastic and then it degrades after it tells you the information. So not only is it beneficial for the local biodiversity, but it's also good to detect, you know, the actual microplastic. Recently, I also published a novel that talks about this. So bringing awareness to the actual problem and how we all know that microplastic is in the food that we eat and the water that we drink and essentially everything that we do, right? So having like more awareness on how we can actually solve the problem and being aware of all the ways that we actually are in touch with microplastic.

SPEAKER_02 2:56

Very cool, very cool. Now, is this related to also PFAS or PFAS? Yes, it is. Have you guys not hit that? Okay, okay, very cool. Yeah, a lot of different things are in our environment and the products that we use, and many of them can be detrimental and not helpful. And I believe, as far as I know, a lot of these components or compounds, we don't even know the effects of a lot of them or what the long-term effects are. Is that what you're finding also?

SPEAKER_00 3:30

Yeah, so essentially we're using biodegradable materials. So you might have heard about PLA being used in biomedicine. Yeah, so they use plastic when they're doing surgery in human bodies, and we're using that same type of polymer when we're building the nanorobot.

SPEAKER_02 3:54

So this is good stuff, these plastics that they're using, because it almost sounds like it was bad at first, but these are good things that dissolve or degrade.

SPEAKER_00 4:02

Yeah, they're not only beneficial for the human body, but they're also fertile for the soil itself.

SPEAKER_02 4:08

Awesome, very good. And you say fertile for the soil. What exactly what does that mean? Once again, it biodegrades, or is it actually helpful?

SPEAKER_00 4:18

It biodegrades in the soil, which in turn makes it more fertile for like the soil and to like hold crops essentially.

SPEAKER_02 4:28

Okay, awesome, awesome. That's fantastic. And I know we talked about, and you also mentioned that you were out of high school pretty early. What did that look like for you and how did that happen for you?

SPEAKER_00 4:41

Yeah, so from a young age, I've always moved around countries. So the US is actually my third country, and my family has just been across the whole world. So knowing that we could move at any time again, I didn't want to lose out on the last two years of high school, especially as they're like important.

SPEAKER_02 5:02

Right, right. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 5:04

I wanted to accelerate that just so I could get into college earlier before my family has another shift. So that actually led me to graduating at 15 and entering college at the ripe age of 16.

SPEAKER_02 5:18

Yeah, that's pretty amazing. Yeah. Yes, you're welcome. You're welcome. Now, with that, graduating early. Some people say there's positives and negatives. Can you say you've had both sides of that coin, so to speak? And maybe if you could share one or two of those on both sides, the positive and some of the challenging side. I want to say negative, but challenging maybe.

SPEAKER_00 5:41

I'd say the positive side is that well, you get away from the typical anxiety that a normal high schooler has around this time, or like in 11th, 12th grade, they're always worrying about colleges. You know, they have a more extended time to think about their application, worry about the nitty-gritty, worry about the small clubs. So I feel like graduating early gave me more of a broader, like bird's eye view of my whole application. It allowed me to go deeper into my interests. In being in college itself, I think being a non-traditional younger student has its own benefits as I have more time to explore, and I'm not really shaped yet, right? So most people already know they like XYZ club, or they're more part of like this sport, or they're interested in like said major. I feel like being young, it allows you to like be truly open to all the opportunities that college has to offer, especially with being younger than your peers, you're able to tackle more ideas than a typical student would be.

SPEAKER_02 6:51

That's really interesting and fascinating because I hear you on that. Because when kids are little, they're very open, they haven't been pushed, their creativity and innovation hasn't been squashed yet. Whereas adding more years, like you were talking about, you're more developed, you have more beliefs and deciding thoughts in your mind of who you are, how you'll proceed forward, and how you'll learn and what you want to focus on. So I totally hear you when you say that. So I think that's a cool opportunity there. Has there ever been any feelings of like intimidating or intimidation in terms of not of people to you, but just more of ooh, I'm kind of out of my element, or these people are quite a bit different from me because of the age gap? Or maybe you've totally fit right in. I don't know what your experience was.

SPEAKER_00 7:44

No, I would say the first semester of college was pretty rough for me. It was really intimidating, and coming in from a place where I had my parents for everything, and you know, I'd asked for permission, like, hey, can I go out now? Can I do this? Can I do that? to just being completely by myself. That was a rough transition. And I would say that I was intimidated by my peers. Just going to office hours, just talking to your TAs, I would say that was like a huge learning curve for me. So being able to put yourself out there, and well, as most people would be like, put yourself out there in college, you know, try out all these different things. It's easier said than done.

SPEAKER_02 8:28

Yes, yes, yeah, I agree with you. Yeah, I know from me and my standpoint, I've been in the workforce since I graduated high school in 1986. So basically I've been out of high school for 40 years now and went into Eastern Michigan University, not really knowing what I wanted to do. And I was quiet, I was introverted, and didn't like to talk much and very soft-spoken. But I had that same learning curve at that time, too, to ooh, I've got to now put myself out there where I was in a formal system, usually through 12th grade, that you have to go to that system. So you feel like, okay, this is how it is. But then once you get to the college level, you're like, wow, kind of on my own, and I have to start with self-leadership and start taking action, learning and growing and getting out of my comfort zone. So I remember that a lot. And actually, just for me, I spent three and a half years in college, and they finally said, Corey, you have to decide what you want to do because you can't stay here forever. They didn't say that exactly, but I was just sitting there because I was like, oh, so paralyzed with what do I want to do? How do I want to create impact in the world? Or what would I like? Back then, my thought was, what do I think I would like doing moving forward? And that was a hard decision for me. So that's pretty cool. So in high school, did you focus on microplastics or science or any of those types of things, or you kind of fell into place as you started going to college?

SPEAKER_00 9:57

I would say in high school, I was set on doing data science and computer science. So microplastic and chemistry was just way out there for me. So I feel like it just started to fall into place as I was leaving high school. Essentially, I feel like I had a problem. I had a sort of an idea of how I wanted to solve it, but most of it fell into place in high in college.

SPEAKER_02 10:24

Very nice. And so basically taking steps forward and learning and growing.

SPEAKER_00 10:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:29

Yeah, very nice. Very nice. Now, did you have any mentors in college? I know you said it was a whole process going out to the RAs or to the office hours asking for help or getting input. Did you have any other, would you say mentors or somebody that kind of took you under their wing to kind of help you to the next step, so to speak?

SPEAKER_00 10:50

I would say I didn't really have a mentor. I think the best mentor is failure, and you learn by failing. So you fail, you will find that whatever you were doing was just not efficient enough. You're not pushing yourself hard enough. So I think the best way to learn would be by failing. Well, it does help to have a mentor, and it does help to have somebody like take you under their wing, but actually going there and failing yourself and finding out that okay, well, this didn't work the first time. What can I do now? And just constantly being in that iterative process where you just keep changing like small variables and then you find like what actually works.

SPEAKER_02 11:34

Yeah, yeah. And that takes patience, it takes determination. So is that something you also had to learn, some of those qualities, or did you already feel you had some of those?

SPEAKER_00 11:44

I feel like throughout high school I did build on them, especially graduating two years early. I think that I had to constantly go against the system and had to believe that yes, you know, I can actually graduate two years early, and I can take like XYZ amount of APs, I can take on like a thousand extracurriculars. It's just like the self-belief and faith, but also say being spiritual and at the end, like grounding yourself in your own spirituality also helps.

SPEAKER_02 12:17

Yeah, no, that's really good. And grounding yourself in your spirituality, can you I can barely say that grounding yourself in spirituality? What does that mean for you to ground yourself in your spirituality?

SPEAKER_00 12:32

Yeah, so I would say that faith for me isn't really about having certainty that things will work out. It's more about trusting that even if things don't go the way that I expect them to, the process still has value in of itself.

SPEAKER_02 12:47

Hmm, the process. I love that. Yeah, I know for me growing up that was another thing is I always wanted to skip the process, skip the journey, and just get to the goal. I'm like, that's where I want to be. But if you throw that out, the journey or the process, or you don't slow down to smell the roses or grab some of the learning experiences, then I found I've missed out on a lot of teaching experiences, of maturity and growth. So is that something you've had to adjust to also, or it was just kind of since you were in flow, it kind of naturally happened?

SPEAKER_00 13:27

I think I had to teach that to myself. Like there were a lot of moments where the outcome just didn't validate the effort. Like, yeah, I put in a hundred hours, but well, I have nothing to show for it. So even in like research and other projects, I still had to keep going because you just have to believe that whatever you're doing is actually worth doing and that it will at some point turn out in your favor.

SPEAKER_02 13:53

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I find that very interesting too. And the one thing I find when I'm coaching leaders, one of the biggest things I'm finding is that there's so many distractions, so many options out there. And it's been said when you have too many options, you have none. And most people stay superficial and kind of on the surface level of all those different options because they take a little bit of action, but they don't stay persistent or determined to get results. But it's when you take one or two of those that you can now focus more time, energy, and maybe resources of money or whatever else there may be. Then you get deeper, and all of a sudden that's where the gold is, and you start learning or growing, and like you said, the iterative process. You can really get deep and start learning some things, which I think is cool. And to me, that speaks of when I read your bio along with what you've shared about graduating early, which is intense focus, more disciplined dedication, also to doing a TEDx talk, that's intention, and writing a novel, that's intention. And I know offline we talked about you could write a ton of different papers on different things, but you want to make sure they're helpful. So once again, you're being intentional about these things. So, how do you stay aligned with your values or your purpose when there's so many possibilities out there? And you talked about the innovation creative process earlier that you were more in that space and it was easier for you. But how do you stay aligned once you grab onto something or you have a topic instead of being distracted by those other shiny objects?

SPEAKER_00 15:33

Yeah, I'd say it's more pressure, like being distracted is more pressure from like the outside world, and at least my view. So I don't really like relying on motivation because I think it's not stable, it's fleeing, and well, we all know that motivation just comes and goes. One day you feel like you're on top of the wall, the other day you're just not having it. So I think when things are overwhelming and also uncertain, I just simplify everything down to structure. I focus on what I can actually control in the moment and like the next decision, the next hour, the next step. But that's what we all know, right? We all try to just focus on the next step, and it's easier said than done. But I think one step that I have like really learned over the past few years is that I will try to also zoom out and remind myself why I started that in the first place. So I like to ground myself in my original intent, and honestly, I think I've learned to be okay with not feeling confident all the time. I think alignment isn't about like feeling strong, it's about continuing to act in the direction that you believe in, and even if you don't feel certain, it's like I know that this is what I need to do.

SPEAKER_02 16:47

Yeah, yeah, and having that discipline to stay moving forward. Yeah. Yeah. Do you find social media as a distraction or a lot of the digital things going on, or have you learned a system or a process that allows you to stay grounded? Because you talked about a process, but what are a couple of those elements that really keeps you grounded? Because it seems like, as you said, day-to-day, there's all kinds of distractions in how we're feeling energy-wise, what's motivating, what's not.

SPEAKER_00 17:20

I'd say controversial opinion. I think social media can be a tool when it's used efficiently. It can be a distraction, it can be used to sell like fuel your self-hate. But I think if you're able to curate an algorithm, if you're able to have restrictions on how long you are social media for, what you end up actually using social media, I think it can actually be used as a great tool. I know most people throughout high school they say that they aren't on Instagram, they don't believe in being on TikTok and Snapchat and whatnot. I think it can be a great tool if used properly. But the thing is that as with all things, it sometimes gets misused, and you end up spending a lot of time that you could have used elsewhere.

SPEAKER_02 18:10

Yeah. Yeah, those big companies out there, big platforms spend a lot of money on the things that are going to keep us on those platforms, mostly for revenue, ad spend, or whatever it is that only serves them for the most part, at least the way they've engineered them or gamified them. However, just like you said, as people are intentional about how they use it and don't let it control their process or their life and help themselves to stay on their own purpose and impact they want to create. That yes, I do agree with you too, that social media and all these different innovations are great in certain ways, but it's no different than water. If it's used improperly or we drink too much of it, it's no good. If we drink too little of it, no good. But if we have a good balance, it can be very helpful. So yeah, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 19:05

And tell me, yeah, even with social media being used as like networking and marketing. I think it's so important to actually put yourself out there even on social media. Um just like being completely out is well, you're missing out.

SPEAKER_03 19:21

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 19:22

Yeah. Yeah, and that's very interesting because I'm not a very big social media guy, but I know a lot of I agree with you in that getting out there. Once again, I've come from this introverted, quiet, and then as I've gotten into the workforce, I'm like, ooh, and I've had this imposter feeling that am I good enough to do some of these things that I'm put in these positions to do, and and mostly focusing on those limiting beliefs rather than focusing on empowering beliefs has been a big thing. So I do agree with you getting out there, and now I coach on executive presence, doing videos, creating messaging and awareness for who you are as a person, but also to what your company or wherever your career that you work for is or your business. And I totally agree with you getting out there and being individual and showing the human side of things, which is a big thing, especially with the AI and everything that's coming out here.

SPEAKER_00 20:19

So, yeah, just being authentic to yourself, too.

SPEAKER_02 20:23

Yep, yep. And can you clarify that a little bit more, go a little bit deeper in that? What do you mean by being authentic to yourself?

SPEAKER_00 20:32

I think it's so easy to fall into the normal trends of this is what's trending on Instagram or this is what the other people are doing, especially with what was happening with the McDonald's CEO, where everyone was trying to replicate the same video. Yeah, have you seen that?

SPEAKER_02 20:48

I no, I have not. I was just gonna say that. I haven't seen that, but now of course I've got a homework assignment.

SPEAKER_00 20:53

I'm yeah, so essentially there was um McDonald's CEO that was trying out their burger, and he got criticized for it. So other CEOs decided to hop on it, and they were doing like a whole parody of his video, but I think we're forgetting like the main thing that, well, the other CEOs weren't taste testing their own products in the first place.

SPEAKER_02 21:18

Mmm, interesting. So he was basically leading by example, is what I'm hearing. Yeah. No, that's great. That's great. It is funny, too, that you say that one of my sons, I have three kids who are in college right now, and one of my sons, when he's at home, he's usually at the the kitchen table and he's either doing his homework, actually, I don't know where he does his homework, but when he's eating, whatever, and he's by himself, he's on his phone just cracking up about certain things. But my whole point on that is there's nothing wrong with humorous things. But sometimes if we're not, once again, intentional and focused, all we're doing is making fun of somebody else, putting all of our energy there, which some of these creators do. Which is fine. But for us, it's important to, yeah, enjoy some of those things, but also, as you were saying, dig deeper into some of the juice that's a positive factor in it, and seeing some of the business examples that are out there and how to lead ourselves as this guy was doing. So I think that's a cool point on that he was checking out his own food. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's really cool. As you being or holding patents, can you talk about that process and how those came about? I think it you said you had two patents. Is that correct or no?

SPEAKER_00 22:38

Yeah, that's correct.

SPEAKER_02 22:39

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 22:40

So my first patent is on the biodegradable nanorobot that I talked about. And the second one is on a predictive machine. So it's called Pulse. And it's a predictive machine that's able to detect when the user is actually about to lose interest. So we talk about TikTok, we talk about Instagram. Their algorithms are basically used to keep you engaged. And so you have to physically restrain yourself from keep scrolling and just being engaged on the same videos of like cats and dogs. So I was actually building this for patients. So for physical therapy, most patients lose interest and drop out on their activities and their exercises before they actually reach the stage where it's okay for them to stop their recovery. So basically, what this machine is able to do is it's able to predict the user disengagement score and it is able to give the user motivation, it's able to give the user like a more estimated timeline on when their recovery should be done. So I know I personally wore my like knee the other day, and I was like, oh, I have to start going to physical therapy again, and it's gonna be like a huge chore. I think it's more about like having the user just more in tune with themselves as well, and having like those same algorithms that we have for Instagram, for TikTok, for all these things that we know are like bad to our focus, to our discipline, and actually using that same mathematical module to help patients and to actually like do something that's good.

SPEAKER_02 24:26

Awesome. Yeah, and I like that too. Once again, we talked about that earlier, just the whole idea of staying focused on your purpose or the impact you're trying to create in your lives. And one of the biggest words I've had this year and previous years is the word follow-through, where the word follow through can work for almost any situation that I'm aware of. If you want to get good at something or get results from something, whether starting a business, getting your college degree, getting a patent, exercise, nutrition, health, wealth, whatever it is, or just creating great strong relationships, it takes follow-through and not just a one and done. So I think that's fantastic. And yeah, yeah, no, this is great. And what would you say for you is has been one of the biggest leadership lessons that has shaped your life to this point? And I I'm assuming actually, if you don't mind me asking your age at this moment, what how old are you?

SPEAKER_00 25:25

I am still 16.

SPEAKER_02 25:27

Okay, still 16. Okay, okay, fantastic. Good for you. I feel like since I met you before, I'm like, wait a minute, are you five years older? And no, that was a month ago. But awesome, 16. So, yeah, what is one of the biggest leadership lessons that has helped to shape your life to this point?

SPEAKER_00 25:43

Yeah, I'd say that the biggest shift for me this past year was just realizing that leadership wasn't about having clarity before you act. I used to think that I needed to fully understand everything and I need to know the whole situation before making any sort of decision. But in reality, I think that most meaningful problems don't come with clear answers. Like you can't find X plus two is gonna be what. So there were moments where projects didn't go the way I expected them to, like research or just ideas that didn't translate. I feel like I still had to make decisions anyway, even if I was feeling uncertain. So the lesson for me was that leadership is not really about taking responsibility in uncertainty, it's more about feeling responsible in your own actions. It's about not waiting to take like to feel ready, and it's not waiting for like to having all the information, it's about moving forward in like a thoughtful and like intentional way.

SPEAKER_02 26:46

Yeah, no, I love that. Yeah, that's fantastic. Well, well, thank you so much, Arya, for being here and sharing a lot of your wisdom at 16 years old, which is so awesome. And I think you are such as just you being an innovator, you're such a great leader who leads by example, uh even though you may have fears and uncertainty, stepping into those fears or stepping into what you feel is your your greatest purpose. So thank you so much for being here.

SPEAKER_00 27:17

Thank you for having me, Corey.

SPEAKER_02 27:19

Yes, you're welcome. And if I could ask, what's the best way for people to stay connected with you?

SPEAKER_00 27:27

Yeah, so I'm on Instagram at aria.upadhi, and they can also contact me on LinkedIn, and my email is aria.upadhi at utexas.edu.

SPEAKER_02 27:41

Awesome. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00 27:43

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 27:44

And I want you're welcome. You're welcome. And I wanted to thank you for listening to this episode of Unapologetic Leadership, where Aria shared so many great things in our own self-leading or leading of ourselves, which is so important, and to stay grounded in our values and stay grounded in what we feel our purpose is. And even though there may be distractions out there, if we have a process that can help us stay going in the right direction, because motivation isn't always going to be there. So remember that it's important to get uncomfortable and move forward in life or business or school, and even though you may not have the certainty to still take the responsibility in your own decision making. And remember that one of the best teachers out there is failure. So keep taking steps, develop your confidence, and stay focused and aligned with your values. Thank you for listening to this episode of Unapologetic Leadership, and we'll see you in the next one.

SPEAKER_01 28:58

So that's it for today's episode of Unapologetic Leadership. Head on over to wherever you listen to podcasts and subscribe to the show. One lucky listener every single week that posts a review on Apple Podcasts or iTunes will win a chance the grand prize drawing to win a twenty-five thousand dollar private VIP day with Corey Dunham herself. So head on over to Unapologetic Leadership Podcast dot com and pick up a free copy of Corey's gift. And join us on the next episode.