Anish Pai (12) recalls the Sacramento 2019 robotics competition where Harker’s robotics team qualified for the world championship. The Harker Robotics Team’s robot, with the number “1072” plastered on its side and a blue boundary covering the gear, had placed the orange ball into its goal. After testing the robot every day, he and the rest of the robotics team would come back to the hotel to discuss and re-design the robot by redoing the intake and ball carriage system so that it would be more reliable during the time between the first and second regional competition. Trying out new ways to manufacture the robot, Anish remembers being able to improve the robot to its fullest capacity. For Anish, he enjoyed how he was able to push the limits of the robot and make it the best it could be.

Through various courses at the Harker middle school as well as summer camps, Anish has always followed his love for programming. Naturally, when he came into high school, he joined the robotics club. Now, Anish plays a major role as the Director of Machining and spends his time building robots.

“[Robotics] has made me more creative and more design-oriented,” Anish said. “I now think a couple steps ahead to see how parts can fit together and make me understand things better. It’s [also] given me a better visualization on how things are engineered and what it takes to make the simple things around us.”

When Anish first started learning about robotics, the various jargon and concepts in the field kept him on his toes. Though he had experience with programming, it was not easy to grasp the various ideas.

“[Robotics] is very fast-paced, and at the beginning, it was an eight-week build season, so you needed to get up to speed before those eight weeks ended,” Anish said. “It was hard to understand concepts, but through repeated repetition, I got the hang of it.”

Throughout his years in robotics, Anish has learned many concepts, such as machining and g-coding, which is what programs the machines to manufacture the parts of the robot. However, the initial process surprised him when he first started out.

“I didn’t actually understand how from-scratch robotics was until day one of build season, when there was nothing in front of us,” Anish said. “We weren’t working on anything and there were piles and piles of metal. It was like, ‘Okay, make a robot out of this.'”

Yet, with time, patience and Wikipedia, Anish conquered challenges and motivated himself and his teammates.

“If you keep reading new information about the thing you are trying to fix, you’re bound to come across a solution,” Anish said. “So, by reading [Wikipedia], it makes me feel powerful and makes it seem like, ‘Oh, if I keep doing this, I’ll eventually find the answer.'”

In his sophomore year, Anish encountered another challenge: the coronavirus pandemic, as the robotics team wasn’t able to meet in person.

“Because of COVID, we haven’t been able to train as many people in the past year, so we’ve doubled the amount of untrained people who joined robotics this year,” Anish said. “Overcoming the challenge and merging the gap from where we were before to where we need to be for competitive season was quite challenging.”

Despite not being able to meet in-person, by working with his teammates, Anish was able to come up with ideas to have a successful season. By creating various teaching techniques, he and the team were able to navigate their way through the obstacles COVID-19 threw.

“I worked with my peers to develop lesson plans and ideas of what we could do to train in the off-season and stuck to it,” Anish said. “[The team] also made sure that we were including everyone.”

Anish particularly enjoys robotics competitions, where he is able to test out the robots he and the robotics team have built. He finds the challenges fun and enjoys seeing the team’s hard work in action after months of design and building.

“You bond as a group, you stay up really late working on the robot, fixing anything that breaks,” Anish said. “Seeing your robot in action is [also] very rewarding. After eight intense weeks of building, you finally see it pay off and see the robot function, which is really nice.”

Robotics requires strategizing, which helped Anish greatly in water polo, allowing him to think ahead in order to help his teammates. Mathematics teacher Dr. Victor Adler, who coached Anish on the varsity boys water polo team, appreciates Anish’s humor, as well as his punctuality, eagerness and teamwork.

“At the end of the season, we were having our team party and [Anish] led the players into a very cold pool,” Dr. Adler said. “It was his enthusiasm and having fun with his teammates which was very cool. Let’s just say his reaction to the temperature of the pool was number one.”

Water polo teammate and friend Thomas Wisdom (11) values his friendship and reliability.

“Sometimes during the water polo season, things weren’t going great all the time, so I could talk to [Anish] about it which was nice,” Thomas said. “He’s very smart and social, and he’s able to talk to people.”

Both robotics and water polo require Anish to be driven and positive. Throughout his life, Anish’s mom taught him perseverance.

“Ever since I was young, [my mom] was doing college during the weekends and nights,” Anish said. She always taught me how to be driven and motivated. She also made sure I understood that you couldn’t stop learning and working because if you did that, then you’re not doing anything.”

As Anish remains motivated, he chooses to look for optimism in the face of challenges. Robbie Korin, Anish’s adviser and previous chemistry teacher, takes note of his positivity.

“Whether with his advisory or class, he always has a smile on his face,” Korin said. “His positive attitude and the fact that he gets along with everybody is definitely one of his strengths. He’s willing to take a chance, without necessarily knowing what’s going to happen.”

As Anish looks back on his years at the upper school and his journey through robotics and waterpolo, he realizes how both of the activities have shaped him as a person, and how his motivation and hard work has carved new memories.

“I want to be remembered as a knowledgeable person who’s kind and let people know they could come to me with any problems and I’d be happy to give assistance,” Anish said. “I [also] hope that my machining knowledge gets passed down throughout the robotics program because over the past few years, we’ve developed new techniques to [build].”