The Robotics Whiz ROHAN AGRAWAL Last year, Rohan became a bit of a media sensation, when at age 12 the Cupertino seventhgrader built complex robots at the Sunnyvale company OLogic during a summer internship. One robot delivered bags of chips to employees around the office—a seemingly fun activity that was actually a serious display of sensors and mapping technology. Rohan’s acumen came as a bit of a surprise to his corporate mentors, but in light of how he spent his young life leading up to the accomplishment, it’s perhaps not that surprising. Always a very inquisitive child, at age 4 Rohan became fascinated with Google’s website, after his mom, a computer scientist, showed it to him. “I got kind of intrigued and said, ‘How can I make something like that?’” When his mom explained the website was created using a language called HTML, Rohan pushed to know more. “Then she Googled it for me, right? Then we found this website that teaches you HTML.” Rohan smiles at the humorous twist of the anecdote. By age 5, he had built his own private website where he kept a journal of each day’s events. Rohan continued pressing for more knowledge and began using the Web on his own to do research. He also pored over books his parents gave him or found at the library. At age 6, he was building circuits. Soon after, he read about Steve Wozniak, which drove him to do an Internet search for the Homebrew Computer Club— the club Wozniak famously belonged to when he created the first Apple computer. Rohan couldn’t find the now defunct club, but he did find the Homebrew Robotics 56 South Bay Accent Club and asked his parents to take him to a meeting. He couldn’t understand everything being discussed, but he says, “People were nice to me and didn’t just dismiss me.” A very social child extremely comfortable speaking with adults, Rohan asked lots of questions at those meetings and wherever his parents took him on evenings and weekends—like to the electronics flea market at De Anza College. Everywhere he went, he says, grown-ups were always very encouraging. At age 9, Rohan’s interest turned to ham radios, which he figured out how to work on his own, according to his dad, Vivek. A software engineer, Vivek says he didn’t fully understand Rohan’s interest in the “old” technology. “After explaining it many times to me, he said, ‘Daddy, you won’t understand!’” Vivek says with a laugh. Rohan chimes in, “You need to be a ham radio operator to understand why it’s so fun!” ROBOT REVELATIONS Around this same time, Rohan started creating robots, with each version becoming increasingly more sophisticated. The intricacies of robotics was something else Vivek didn’t fully understand, but that didn’t stop him from serving as Rohan’s building assistant. His son joined the Hacker Dojo in Mountain View last year, and he now spends 10 to 12 hours on Saturdays working on robots with others. Vivek says he often tries to pull Rohan away from so much work, but with little success. Despite wanting Rohan to take a break last summer, Vivek found himself driving his middle school student to OLogic every day. Rohan discovered that internship through connections at the Homebrew Robotics Club. OLogic CEO Ted Larson says he was skeptical at first, handing Rohan a box of parts and challenging him to make a complicated robot. Larson thought it would either take Rohan most of the summer or he’d quit the first day. The robot was completed by the second day. “Talk to him for a few minutes and you realize there’s a lot more there than you would normally find in a 12-year-old kid,” says Larson. “I could definitely see him giving TED talks when he’s in high school, because that’s the kind of caliber of kid he is.” In the fall, Rohan was invited to a reunion of the Homebrew Computer Club at the Computer History Museum, where he got to meet his inspiration, Steve Wozniak. The usually talkative youngster was suddenly speechless. Says Vivek, “It was an amazing experience. He saw his superhero right in front of him.” Rohan isn’t at an age when he can determine his future. For now he looks forward to more internships on school breaks, consulting through the company he started called Aleopile and getting his driver’s license so his dad “doesn’t have to drive me around everywhere.” As for fun, Rohan says he loves to watch “Modern Marvels” on the History Channel “or anything that comes on the History Channel.” “Silicon Valley is the best for such a kid,” says Vivek. “It can provide him so much help and resources, we kind of exploit all those resources because this guy has so much potential, is so hungry for knowledge. For us this is the best place for him.” AGE 12 LIVES CUPERTINO FOR FUN “MODERN MARVELS” TV SHOW
South Bay Accent - Apr/May 2014
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