Indian-origin teenagers in the United States have swept to victory this month at the National Brain Bee Championship, with Sojas Wagle, 15, a sophomore at Springdale’s Har-Ber High School in Arkansas declared the 2017 national champion of the three day competition.

The National Brain Bee Championship is held annually at the University of Maryland.

Wagle beat runner-up Aarthi Vijayakumar of Minneapolis and Amit Khana of Indianapolis, who are also of Indian descent.

Wagle will be going to Washington, D.C., in August this year for the International Brain Bee Championship, he also won an eight-week internship in a neuroscience laboratory.

A donation will also be given to the brain-disorder charity of his choice, the Alzheimer's Association.

The International Brain Bee competition will be held from August 3 – 6, in conjunction with the American Psychological Association conference.

All the winners from 51 Brain Bee chapters from around 30 states competed in Baltimore from March 17-19 in the event hosted by the University of Maryland that featured written and oral exams, patient diagnoses using actor patients, and microscopic slide studies.

"I studied harder and kind of perfected the neuroanatomy section to make sure I was familiar with all parts of the brain and could point those out on a brain model," Wagle told arkansasonline.com.

Wagle participates in debates and plays violin, he is considering a career in medicine, possibly neurology. His father Sameer Wagle is a neonatologist and mother Aparna Wagle is a computer laboratory manager for the Springdale School District.

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