Safety goggles adorning his face, Rithvik Panchapakesan (12) stares intently at the complicated piece of machinery in front of him. His team watches behind him as he operates the manual mill to precisely cut a part that will later be implanted in the robot. As he finishes the cut, he adjusts his glasses and hands the part to one of his fellow robotics team members.

In 4th grade, after seeing his friends taking part in robotics and enjoying themselves, Rithvik made the decision to join robotics and hasn’t looked back since. Over the years, Rithvik has continued to expand on his knowledge of machinery and software through his participation in both Harker and outside robotics teams.

“For me, when I’m doing robotics or programming in general, I really enjoy that exhilarating feeling that comes to me. My friends and I often go biking, and what I feel during robotics is similar to the feeling when we are biking along a nice trail or road, enjoying the sights and the breeze on our faces,” Rithvik said.

Besides robotics, Rithvik is also a part of Harker Dev, where he helps create applications such as the course planner, bell schedule and Harker Pay to help the school community. And outside of the work he does, Rithvik has met many people and grown used to working with a team.

“Rithvik’s a real team player. Even if some things don’t work out to his advantage, he makes decisions to help everyone as a whole instead of himself,” said Kaushik Shivakumar (12), a friend of Rithvik’s who is also in his outside Vex robotics club. “He’s also very collaborative. Whenever he has new ideas or innovations, he’s very open about sharing them with the team even if everyone will have access to them now.”

Robotics is an activity that requires patience and problem-solving skills, as team members have to be precise and careful in their actions in order to avoid mistakes in the final product. And though many problems may arise while building a robot, Rithvik perseveres until he has found a solution.

“Especially when you’re working on robotics, if you run into an issue, it is really easy to give up and move along a different path. I try to stick to the path I have taken and push through no matter what. This usually means I have to spend five or six more hours to make it work,” Rithvik said.

Rithvik also applies his persistent mentality to his academic work as well. His desire for knowledge and natural curiosity have made a lasting impression on his teachers.

“He has a very inquisitive mind, where if something excites him, he is willing to take a lot of effort to dig deep and thoroughly understand it. He doesn’t like being frivolous about anything. He’s very serious about learning,” said Rithvik’s previous computer science teacher Anu Datar.

Another aspect of Rithvik’s personality that his friends notice is his knack for taking on unplanned projects.

“He’s the type of person who sees a random project that they want to take on and is not afraid to just do it,” said Ryan Adolf (12), another of Rithvik’s close friends and a member of Harker robotics.

Rithvik hopes to continue robotics in college and expand on all the skills he’s gained through his time in robotics. He believes that the networking aspects of robotics as well as the building and programming facets will help him in the future.

“In robotics I’ve learned the mechanical and software engineering that comes with building a robot, programming it to move and perform tasks. At the same time, a big part of robotics is networking and socialization. An ability I’ve gained is to combine both the engineering aspects and also the more social aspects [of robotics]. Skills such as talking to judges, being able to present your ideas in a clear fashion and making friends with other people to work together and do well in competitions have been really important and useful,” Rithvik said.