Start early! One of my regrets was not starting my project as soon as I had first wanted to. I had been thinking of building my robot for months before I finally executed my plans — I was afraid of failure (what if all the time and money I spent went to waste?), and ultimately I wish that I had more time to use my skills to address such a pressing issue.
As part of my series about young people who are making an important social impact”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Riya Ranjan
Riya Ranjan is a junior at Monta Vista High School in Cupertino, CA. She has been coding since she was in middle school, and has since worked at Duke University’s Center for Computational Evolutionary Intelligence and USC’s Interaction Lab. Her interests in STEM center around using robotics and machine learning to make a social impact, particularly through examining anti-racism and feminism to dismantle systemic oppression. In her free time, she loves to write, read, and bake with her family.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit. Can you tell us a bit how you grew up?
I have lived in Cupertino, California my whole life, so I have always been surrounded by STEM in the heart of the Silicon Valley. My parents are also software engineers, so they have definitely had an influence on my pursuits, as I was introduced to coding and the concept of “computer science” at a young age. Furthermore, living just 10 minutes away from top tech companies like Apple, Google, and Facebook, I’ve been exposed to the frontier of tech and all that it has to offer — whether the latest smartphone or self driving cars. In general, I feel really lucky to have grown up in the Silicon Valley — for a lot of students, especially women of color like myself, there are so many barriers to pursuing STEM — from experiences microaggressions to exclusion in STEM classes, so many girls in STEM have their dreams deferred — so the proximity to computer science and engineering that I have just based on where I live is a real privilege.
You are currently leading an organization that aims to make a social impact. Can you tell us a bit about what you and your organization are trying to change in our world today?
My project is a socially assistive robot designed for social interventions for students with autism spectrum disorder. I started my project last summer, when I built Cornell’s Blossom robot, which is a socially assistive robot that can truly be created in the comfort of your home — I made mine in my bedroom under quarantine! Since February, I have been working with a local autism education center to implement my robot as a socially assistive aid for autistic students to help them with processing social anxiety.
Since Blossom is a socially assistive robot, it has many potential applications to promote social good; other socially assistive robots have been used to help tutor students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or recovering cancer patients. In general, socially assistive robots are just meant to provide assistance to anyone who might need it. Blossom specifically was created as a “soft robot” to help autistic students with emotion recognition — it looks much more like a toy than the traditional industrial robots you might think of, which makes it much more comforting and customizable for students. So it’s definitely a novel tool, even within the field of robotics, and I’ve implemented it so that it can facilitate breathing exercises for students with ASD.
My hope is that, with this project, I can use my expertise in STEM to make a tangible impact on my community and promote equity and anti-ableism. Right now, I am primarily working locally, but in future years, I hope to expand this project so that it can hopefully positively impact more people.
Can you tell us the backstory about what inspired you to originally feel passionate about this cause?
In 2018, I read an article about Maja Mataric, a professor at the University of Southern California who runs the Interaction Lab, which studies socially assistive robotics. The article discussed her work on an NSF expeditions project for using socially assistive robots to tutor students with autism spectrum disorder — and I found her work so fascinating because it was such a unique and beneficial application of computer science that I had never seen before. In 2019, I did a research internship at the Maja’s Interaction Lab, and having continued my research there with her team ever since. Building Blossom over quarantine was essentially the culmination of all that I’ve learned from my time at the lab — I wanted to start my own project to make an impact just like Professor Mataric, and now I have!
Many of us have ideas, dreams, and passions, but never manifest it. They don’t get up and just do it. But you did. Was there an “Aha Moment” that made you decide that you were actually going to step up and do it? What was that final trigger?
Both quarantine and the recent social and political movements we’ve seen across the country were definitely catalysts for starting this project. With the rise of #BlackLivesMatter and a newfound focus on social equality in general throughout society, I found myself thinking about ways that I could use my own intersectional privilege to make a difference in society — and I thought, what better way to do so than to use my STEM skills to address issues that I am passionate about? Given all the extra time I had in 2020 during COVID, I found myself in the perfect situation to start a passion project like this to make the impact on my community, so I found the Blossom build guide online and just started building.
Many young people don’t know the steps to take to start a new organization. But you did. What are some of the things or steps you took to get your project started?
While the process of building took a lot of time on its own, I also did a lot of planning beforehand to determine how much money all of the materials would cost, how I would acquire different parts like 3D prints and laser cut pieces, and other logistical things — so I would definitely say that planning ahead is integral, as well as contacting anyone who might be of help to you, even if that means sending cold emails or stepping out of your comfort zone. In general, starting any project requires holding yourself accountable for progress and persevering through difficulties, and I think that it can often be discouraging to start initiatives without seeing tangible progress early on, so it’s really important to plan out the steps of what you want to do and when you want to do it so that you can see yourself accomplishing smaller goals along the way to the bigger, overarching goal to stay motivated.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company or organization?
So far, one of the coolest things that has happened to me while working on this project was receiving a grant from Hershey for Blossom’s social impact! The award is called the Heartwarming Grant, and I was awarded for using my STEM skills for social benefit. This grant was the primary way that I was able to finance my project, so it was a huge help to me during the building process.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson or take away you learned from that?
At the beginning of the building process, I had to re laser cut the wooden parts more than 5 times, which required resizing 20 different parts by hand on my laptop, sending the files to my school’s woodshop, waiting a day for the new cuts, picking them up, realizing they were not the right size, and repeating the whole process. It was definitely one of those moments where perseverance was really necessary; every alteration was hard to make, and the repeated failures were definitely frustrating. But it’s also something that I look back on and laugh because of how much work it took me to jump that hurdle, and now I’m so glad that I put in that work to get my robot to the refined, robust state it’s in today.
None of us can be successful without some help along the way. Did you have mentors or cheerleaders who helped you to succeed? Can you tell us a story about their influence?
My mentor at the Interaction Lab, Chris Birmingham, has definitely been one of my biggest supporters. He has taught me so much about how to approach research in computer science, and has constantly supported me throughout my project with Blossom with his expertise and resources. Mr. Shinta, the engineering teacher at my high school, has also been a huge help — over the summer, he helped create a lot of the pieces I needed for my robot using my school’s laser cutter and 3D printer, and he was always patient throughout the process, helping me get each part just right. My mom was also a huge help — her knitting skills helped create the clothing for my robot, which ultimately brought Blossom to life.
Can you tell us a story about a particular individual who was impacted or helped by your cause?
While my project is currently in deployment, there are several similar projects that have been conducted by researchers at Yale, USC, and MIT, specifically geared towards implementing socially assistive robots to help autistic students. One great example I can think of is the expeditions project in 2012, which worked directly with students with autism spectrum disorder to successfully encourage social and cognitive growth. These research projects vary widely in the specific problem they target, from tutoring social skills to helping students with their homework. However, the general impact is very similar to what I hope to do with my robot in my community — create a more equitable learning environment for students with ASD.
Are there three things the community/society/politicians can do to help you address the root of the problem you are trying to solve?
I really think that there needs be a push to make education more equitable and accessible to everyone, regardless of ability. The main thing that my implementation of Blossom does is create a way for students with autism to learn and process their emotions in the classroom. The impact that one Blossom can make on a few students in my community is really rewarding, but for there to be an impact nationally — for technologies like Blossom to be more accessible to more students — there needs to be more funding and a greater focus on promoting anti-ableist equity from people in positions of power, or our politicians and leaders.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why. Please share a story or example for each.
Number one: Getting started is the hardest part. For me, the process of collecting all the parts for the robot, working out kinks in the open source code, and just figuring out the software was the most tedious task — I would constantly take two steps forward, one step back, and even had to take apart the whole midsection of the robot gluing one gear incorrectly. For anyone else starting a passion project, just know that it gets better once you get over the first few hurdles!
Number two: Seek out help constantly. At the beginning of the project, I was afraid to ask anyone for help because I felt embarrassed about my confusion — I distinctly recall stubbornly running dysfunctional code for days before finally emailing one of the researchers at Cornell to ask them for help. After asking for help, I could solve problems so much faster, and looking back, I regret how much time I spent struggling and not asking for help (time that I could have spent progressing with my project).
Number three: Use the resources available to you. This goes hand in hand to #2, but one of the things that was a huge help to me was being able to use the facilities at my high school to save money on laser cutting parts that would have otherwise cost more than 100 dollars. Obviously, not everyone has access to many of the resources that make conducting a project smoother — which is all the more reason that if you do, you should utilize them to their full extent!
Number four: Fail quickly, early, and often. This may seem counterintuitive, but throughout the process of building my robot and implementing its capabilities in a real world setting, I learned so much from my failures, whether it was wiring issues (which I ran into numerous times) or incorrectly implemented gestures. One thing’s for sure — I’ll never solder wires incorrectly again!
Number five: Start early! One of my regrets was not starting my project as soon as I had first wanted to. I had been thinking of building my robot for months before I finally executed my plans — I was afraid of failure (what if all the time and money I spent went to waste?), and ultimately I wish that I had more time to use my skills to address such a pressing issue. If you have something that you want to do that you are passionate about, just go for it — don’t think to much, take the plunge and work relentlessly to make it happen!
If you could tell other young people one thing about why they should consider making a positive impact on our environment or society, like you, what would you tell them?
For anyone out there who is planning to start a passion project to make an impact on an issue you really care about, just know that, no matter how small an impact, your project has the capacity to be life changing for someone. So go get it done! Use your skills and power for good; we should all use the privileges and passion we have in life to make a positive impact on society.
Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. 🙂
I would definitely want to have lunch with Michelle Obama. She is such an intelligent, beautiful, and successful woman — and she serves as an inspiration to women of color everywhere, including myself.
How can our readers follow you online?
My Instagram account is: @riyarranjan
This was very meaningful, thank you so much. We wish you only continued success on your great work!
Young Social Impact Heroes: Why and How Riya Ranjan Is Helping To Change Our World was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.