“Before we even begin to put our thoughts into words, our minds are already hard at work.” – Aarthi Venkatesh
For Aarthi Venkatesh, a fourth-year Psychology major and Philosophy minor at Krea University’s School of Interwoven Arts and Sciences (SIAS), this is more than an idea found in a textbook. It became one of the defining insights of a summer spent exploring the earliest stages of human cognition.
In early 2026, Aarthi was selected as one of five students globally for the Founding Generation Fellowship by the International Congress of Infant Studies (ICIS). The fellowship took her nearly 7,000 miles from home to the University of British Columbia (UBC), where she spent the summer working at the Centre for Infant Cognition with developmental psychologist Dr. Kiley Hamlin. There, surrounded by researchers studying how infants perceive and respond to the social world, Aarthi explored a stage of cognition she had never studied before. The experience allowed her to approach cognition from a developmental perspective. It offered a glimpse into the mind before language emerged. When asked about her process of discovering and applying to the fellowship, she says that it was through Dr Madhavilatha Maganti, Associate Professor, Psychology, SIAS, who has known and mentored her since her first year at Krea, that she first came across the fellowship opportunity. “She told me that this would open up a lot of opportunities for me, including the chance to know and work with some pioneering researchers,” she recalls.
A New Perspective on Cognition
At UBC, Aarthi worked on research examining how infants respond to fair and unfair behaviour. The project used eye tracking and EEG to investigate infants’ responses to socio-moral events. Alongside data collection, she also developed a robust automated eye-tracking algorithm that tracks infants’ gaze as they watch dynamic visual scenes.
“Working with infants made me realize how much there is to understand about cognition before language even enters the picture. It gave me a completely different perspective on where cognition begins, and how much we can learn by studying it from the very start.”
The experience also expanded her understanding of what it means to study cognition. This global research experience will culminate this September, when Aarthi presents her fellowship research at the International Congress of Infant Studies symposium.
The Krea Foundation
While the UBC fellowship introduced Aarthi to a new area of research, the curiosity that led her there had grown throughout her time at Krea. Over her three years at Krea, she has explored tactile perception, embodied cognition, time perception and computational modelling, with each experience offering a different way of understanding how the mind perceives and represents the world. As she returns to Krea, Aarthi hopes to bring these interests together in her honours thesis, using computational and philosophical approaches to investigate the origins of temporal and moral judgements.
She credits Dr Rakesh Sengupta, Assistant Professor, Psychology and Discipline Coordinator – Psychology, SIAS, and Dr Madhavilatha Maganti, Associate Professor, Psychology, SIAS, in shaping her understanding of psychological research. Alongside Psychology, she minors in Philosophy, which has encouraged her to question the concepts and assumptions underlying empirical research.
“It was the combination of faculty and the exposure I got at Krea that definitely helped me secure this fellowship and make the most of my time at UBC.”
For Aarthi, Krea’s research environment offered more than classroom learning. Early exposure to methods such as EEG gave her hands-on experience, while working on research taught her how to turn curiosity into questions that can be empirically tested.
A Global Community
The summer in Vancouver offered an education that extended well beyond the walls of the laboratory. Navigating a new country, Aarthi found herself immersed in an international research community at UBC. For a student accustomed to conducting research in India, working alongside scholars from around the world offered a new perspective on collaboration.
“It was fascinating to work with such a diverse set of people,” she reflects. Different cultural and disciplinary perspectives came together to tackle shared scientific questions. That same spirit of exploration extended beyond the lab. Outside work, Aarthi spent her weekends hiking the trails and mountains of British Columbia.
Looking Beyond
When asked what advice she has for her peers, Aarthi’s message is simple: never settle for the obvious answer.
“Continuously question things, regardless of what you see on the surface,” she urges. “Always try to know more.”
She encourages junior students to use their early years at university to explore different domains, work with diverse people, and discover what genuinely excites them. For Aarthi, curiosity is not simply the starting point of research. It is what keeps it moving forward. Every answer opens the door to another question, and every discovery offers a new direction to explore.
