Gazing intently at his computer screen, you will find him lost in deep thought about the simulations running for his research project. Quiet, reserved, and a man of few words, senior Ayush Pancholy’s modest demeanor may be the Ayush that many fellow seniors have known for the past four years, but Ashwin Rammohan (12) describes him as a witty and humorous friend.

Ayush is an ardent hockey fan and has proclivity for wearing hockey t-shirts. A huge fan of the Montreal Canadiens, he plays ice hockey two-three times a week since he finds it fun and a stress-reliever.

His friendly hockey rivalry with history teacher Julie Wheeler is well-known amongst friends. Unfortunately, the competitive spirit didn’t end well for Ayush, since the Montreal Canadiens lost to Wheeler’s team, the Boston Bruins, quite often.

Ayush is perhaps best known for his interests in sciences. An avid participant in math modeling, robotics, physics tournaments and other science competitions, Ayush and his teammates participated in the High School Mathematical Contest in Modeling (HiMCM) to work on solutions to real-world mathematical problems over a period of 36 hours.

As a result of growing up in Silicon Valley, Ayush developed his passion for computer science.

“It provides representations of models that you wouldn’t otherwise have been able to quantify,” Ayush said. “Consequently, I hope to study computer science and use it in the service of physical models. In my opinion, the best computer science course that Harker offers, ATCS: Numerical Methods, was the closest we ever got to modeling physical concepts with computer science, and it was a blast.”

Ayush expanded into other fields throughout high school by keeping an open mind and trying new things. Ayush is grateful for the opportunity to dive into research.

“I didn’t think that I would even do research in high school because it was always this thing that was far away. It was a really reach thing that only elite kids did,” Ayush said. “It was really cool to be able to get into it in high school.”

Branching off from academics, Ayush’s curiosity allowed him to dive deeper into uncharted waters.

“Research is effectively ultimately the point where you get all the source for education,” he said. “It’s like you are finding out something new that hasn’t been found before. So research is interesting because you get a new perspective on things. You also learn about things that you otherwise wouldn’t learn about, especially with a topic that you didn’t choose.”

Ayush’s friends note his tenacity and determination in challenging situations, especially in his computer science classes.

“He doesn’t succumb to challenges,” said Ashwin. “A lot of the projects were really frustrating to debug and we would spend hours and hours on them, but he would sit through them and be like I am going to grit this out from start to finish, I am going to get this done.”

Computer science teacher Anu Datar also reflected on Ayush’s strengths, which she says are
determination, patience, and meticulousness.

“From a lab or project or research project outside of class and it can be something as simple as planning a game with his friends, he goes into the details,” she said. “He really likes to put together a concrete plan and he then follows through and it might take him a while, but he doesn’t lose patience and I have seen that he is very systematic in his approach.”

Datar also observed that Ayush’s relationship with his three of his close friends grew from light banter to a bond of intellectual curiosity in the two years she taught them.

“They fed off of each other, they discussed things, they brainstormed ideas and came up with some really amazing material which was way outside the scope of the course, but they assisted each other and they grew,” she said. “I watched them grow from young boys to now definitely mature young adults. I also saw them grow in terms of learning and they helped each other a lot and saw some really close friendships being formed.”

Despite the passion to pursue science, he does not consider himself to be boxed into STEM, and Ayush also finds himself drawn towards humanities. His achievements reflect his diverse interests — he has earned numerous accolades in Latin.

“I consider participating in JCL and learning about mythologies and history very interesting hobbies,” he said. “In particular, linguistics and etymology fascinate me partially because the study illustrates how different languages, cultures and even religions of the world evolved from similar roots despite being seemingly separate in the modern world.”

Underneath his quiet persona, Ayush’s fun and witty personality helps keep his friends’ spirits high in times of stress.

“There is a certain humor that he injects in every conversation,” Ashwin said. “If we are having a down week, and we are just swamped with assignments, he will throw in something and we will be like all right, there we go, back up to the optimal level of happiness.”