Arjun Panesar

During his first year of studying Computing and Artificial Intelligence at Imperial, Arjun Panesar started Diabetes.co.uk, which has grown to become the world's largest digital diabetes support community by membership. Arjun is the CEO and Head of AI at Diabetes Digital Media (DDM), who provide evidence-based digital health interventions to people with long-term health conditions. DDM provide services to over 1.3 million members across 190 countries.

"I enrolled for Computing with Artificial Intelligence in 2002 and it was by far the best choice I could have made. Today, industry is catching up to the theory we learned nearly 15 years ago. As an organisation, we implement a lot of what was learned. I lead Diabetes Digital Media (DDM) in developing big-data based education which utilizes much of what I learned - from big data analysis and understanding to knowledge representation and the power of cloud (grid) computing."

Why did you choose to study Computing at Imperial?

"I chose to study at Imperial because it has an unrivaled reputation as one of the leading academic institutions in the world. Academically, university life was a challenge - which my friends and I thrived on. It was a fantastic experience to create, innovate and develop my understand with my peers throughout my degree. Living in London was fantastic and personally, the ability to engage with students from across London was something I'll never forget."

Tell us about your studies 

"Imperial's Computing degree isn't just for those wishing to work in the city or a career in coding. My experience at Imperial crafted the skills, confidence and understanding to lead an international organisation. In my opinion, it was being challenged with the application of learned theory that really crafted my personal understanding. Being surrounded by leading Professors and academics was truly inspiring."