Meet Team JAVAK
Team JAVAK is an acronym for all of our names: Jenny, Arun, Violet, Ashley, Kiana. We started off as students in The Bronx High School of Science and members of the school's two robotics teams: The Fe Maidens and The Sciborgs. Team JAVAK kicked off in the PicoCTF competition where we decrypted and hacked our way through programming challenges and discovered the potential when five talented minds come together. Since then, we have continued as a team to win Bronx Science’s first hackathon, AtomHacks, by making air instruments a reality using a movement sensing Myo armband, and now plan on creating our own video game to teach younger students how to CAD and continuing developing our AtomHacks idea.
Jenny
Jenny is a senior attending The Bronx High School of Science. Ever since she was young, she has loved building things such as simple LEGO models and creating her own little website that is still floating around the expansive internet today. Since then, Jenny has grown to harbor a love for learning and experiencing everything around her, leaving a long bucket list of things she wishes to try and learn. From sports to STEM, she found her passion when she joined her high school robotics team and discovered the wonders of programming. Seeing lines of code that make a robot come alive is an exhilarating feeling she can never NOT appreciate. Joining robotics kick started her interest in STEM which she has continued to explore by volunteering at a STEM center where she teaches young kids on building LEGO models and building their own video games. However, above all, Jenny has always wanted to help bring happiness to those around her. Armed with a bright smile, multiple corny (and punny) jokes, and a love for STEM, she plans on helping and teaching those around her as much as she can. She has an undying loyalty to the MARVEL Universe, a love for soccer *cough* football *cough*, loves playing the piano and guitar, and enjoys fencing. Jenny looks forward to trying many more things such as archery, getting the chance to stargaze in Alaska, and continue to grow as a programmer!
Arun
Arun Bishop is a senior at The Bronx High School of Science. He is obsessed with robotics, and from a young age has loved learning how things work. Inspired by his 7th grade math teacher to explore Computer Science, he began learning Python in middle school as well as playing around with Lego NXT, and has continued to learn more about Computer Science and Mechanical Engineering throughout high school. As a Freshmen at the Bronx Science, he joined The SciBorgs, the Bronx Science Co-ed FIRST Robotics Team, as a member of the programming department, wanting to learn more about programming, a skill he could develop at home as well as at school. Learning Java, he was the first sophomore to take the then-Junior level class AP Computer Science, and went on to learn C# and eventually become the captain of the SciBorgs. At home, he also pursued his interest in Mechanical Engineering, learning CAD and working on a 3D printed underwater robot, as well as experiment with various single board computers (like the Arduino Uno and Raspberry Pi). Outside of robotics, Arun is an avid fan of baseball, fishing, and camping, and loves to ponder the unanswerable questions of life. Overall, his goal is to continue to learn through the adventures of JAVAK, and eventually work as a developer of robots to improve the quality of life. And make really cool toys, of course.
Violet
Violet is a senior at The Bronx Science High School of Science, and is looking towards a career in engineering. She was banging on a keyboard at the age of 1, and those early years of editing silly home movies and taking apart the VCR with a screwdriver have evolved into a passion for all things STEM. She has had the incredible opportunity to explore her interests through her high school's all-girls robotics team, the FeMaidens, first as a programmer and now as the team captain. In her free time and in her high school's AP Computer Science course, she learned Java and the basics of CAD and C#. She loves fencing, writing, and getting lost in a good book, and she embraces her serious whistling habit. The team goofball, she is armed with a wild imagination, a tenacious love of learning, and too many one-liners, and is ready for whatever adventures life has in store!
Ashley
Ashley is part of the Stanford University Class of 2019. She is an undecided major, but she hopes to study electrical engineering and computer science.
Ashley was born and raised in the Bronx by her single mother. From participating in FLL robotics as a 4th and 5th grader at P.S. 153, to learning
geometry at NEST+m, to taking a bunch of AP courses at Bronx Science, Ashley has always had a love for STEM and continues to pursue it. She's armed with her sarcasm, sense of humor, and a passion to learn and she's ready to take on what the future has to hold.
Skills: Procrastinating, Working hard when not procrastinating, Learning
Interests: Taking long walks on the beach, playing video games, learning how to program, playing Ultimate Frisbee, breaking things by taking them apart
Kiana
Kiana is a current freshman at California Polytechnic State University: San Luis Obispo majoring in computer science with a minor in business. Kiana was born and raised in New York City but her laid back style better suits California. Ever since she was little she has been obsessed with how things work. So much that when she was 10 she took apart her moms desktop computer with only a hammer and a screwdriver... Her mom wasn’t too happy about that. Eventually she moved on to building and programming robots and she's loved every bit of it. She has always been interested in the idea of mixing music with STEM and she's ready to make that happen. She enjoys playing her guitar, djing and playing frisbee in her free time.