Nitin Verma's interest in STEM can be traced back to his childhood growing up in New Delhi, India. In the early 1990s, he developed an interest in radio and was mesmerized by the ability to pick up radio stations from far away on the shortwave band of the household radio. He was deeply fascinated by photography and optics, which inspired his dissertation research. This research examined the impact that deepfake technology can have on public trust of visual media.