Open Bench · Who teaches it
A high school senior wrote this course. Here is why that is not a problem.
And here, equally, are the things it means he cannot do.
The honest version
Ram is a high school senior. He is not a scientist, a physician, or a teacher, and Open Bench does not pretend otherwise. What qualifies him to teach this course is narrower and checkable: he wrote it, every factual claim in it is sourced to a public database or a published paper you can open yourself, two physicians review each unit before it is taught, and he has done the capstone himself and published it for anyone to pull apart.
What qualifies him
He built the curriculum from the primary literature rather than from other courses, and the eighteen papers behind it are listed on the Reading Room with DOIs.
He has produced the reference dossier students are asked to match, using the same free tools and the same afternoon of work the assignment allows.
Every live session has an adult present, and nothing in the course requires him to make a medical judgement.
What he will not do
He cannot give medical advice, and the course gives none. Students asking about their own eczema or allergies are told to ask their doctor.
He does not grade for school credit. Any credit is arranged by the student's own teacher.
He does not supervise independent research. The capstone is a bounded assignment with a published rubric, not a mentorship.
Curriculum Review Board
Two physicians read every unit before it is taught.
A student author is only as credible as the people checking the work. These are the adults who sign off on what Open Bench says, and on every dossier before it is published.
Dr. Sukumar Kalvapudi
Research Lead & Chief Advisor
Scientific accuracy of every claim in the curriculum, and review of capstone dossiers before publication.
Dr. Devaki Kalvapudi
Curriculum Reviewer
Clinical accuracy and age-appropriateness of how disease, treatment, and risk are described to students.
What Open Bench is not
The claims we refuse to make, written down so nobody has to guess.
Not a research internship
A structured course that ends in one bounded, reviewed piece of analysis. We would rather undersell this than have a student describe it to an admissions officer as something it was not.
Not accredited, and not for credit
No institution has accredited Open Bench. A teacher may choose to award credit through their own school; that is their decision and their authority, not ours.
Not medical education, and not medical advice
Nothing taught here qualifies anyone to advise anyone about their health, including themselves.
Not a credential
There is no certificate. What a student leaves with is a published dossier under their own name that anyone can read and check. We think that is worth more, and it is certainly harder to fake.
Not a track record — yet
The curriculum is finished and open. No cohort has been taught. When one has, this page will say so and will say how it went, including the parts that went badly.
The record behind the instructor
Janakiram (Ram) Mudumbai
Instructor and author, Open Bench
Ram co-founded the World Peace & Prosperity Foundation as a high-school student in New Jersey with a simple conviction: the families he met in hospital wards and community kitchens deserved prevention, not just prescriptions.
He has shadowed physicians across neurology, pain medicine, anesthesiology, cardiology, and gastroenterology over four summers, and volunteers weekly at Capital Health Regional Medical Center, where he runs the patient tea cart and sits with patients who need someone to talk to.
As Youth Director of VT Seva he led fundraising that raised more than $10,000 in 2023 and again in 2025 for Netra Vidyalaya, a school for visually impaired children in India, and helped raise over $100,000 for the Sanjeevani community kitchen in Willingboro, New Jersey, which serves free hot meals to the neighborhood.
2023
Presidential Volunteer Service Award, Gold Medal
2026
National Science Bee, national qualifier
$100K+
Helped raise for Sanjeevani Community Kitchen, Willingboro NJ
$20K+
Raised for Netra Vidyalaya school for the blind (2023, 2025)
4 summers
Clinical shadowing: neurology, pain medicine, anesthesiology, cardiology, GI
Weekly
Patient volunteer, Capital Health Regional Medical Center
Leadership
Youth Director, VT Seva · VP, Academic Team · National Honor Society
Languages
English, Telugu, Spanish; Sanskrit and Tamil verse
Curriculum version 1.0, released 2026-10-24, licensed CC BY 4.0. Every change is logged on the course page.