Parent Teacher Magazine Union County Public Schools Jan/Feb 2018 | Page 20

Marvin Ridge High freshman uses technology to make an impact in his community
Last month, thousands of people poured into Charlotte to
attend the Festival of India, an annual celebration of Indian
culture and heritage.
For the first time, this year’s festival debuted a chatbot – a
computer program similar to Apple’s Siri or Amazon’s Alexa --
that allowed attendees to seamlessly ask questions about tickets,
parking and event schedules. Many probably thought the Festival
of India’s chatbot was created and deployed by a computer
software company, or, at the very least, an experienced software
engineer.
At only 15 years old, Marvin Ridge High freshman
Kaveesh Bhatnagar has already taken the initiative
to contribute his technology skills to his community.
He recently created a chabot for the Festival of India
celebration and is working with a group of friends to
create a nonprofit that will help to bridge the digital
divide.
“No, it’s just something that I did over the
summer,” said Marvin Ridge High freshman Kaveesh
Bhatnagar. “The festival committee said, ‘Why don’t we
make a chatbot this year?’ So I said, ‘Maybe I could do
it.’ And it just all kind of worked out.”
Sitting in his high school’s media center, 15-year-
old Kaveesh said he’s been interested in robotics for as long as he
can remember. With parents who are data analysts, and a sister
who is majoring in computer science, Kaveesh said it seemed only
natural that he would be drawn to software engineering.
While he’s always enjoyed to work on projects privately, the
Festival of India chatbot was the first product that he’s gotten a
chance to publicly launch. When asked what was one of the more
memorable moments about debuting his first project, Kaveesh
said receiving a certificate and $100 for his work from Charlotte
Mayor Jennifer Roberts was pretty exciting.
18 • Jan/Feb 2018 • Parent Teacher Magazine 
In an effort to provide users with an even better experience at
the 2018 Festival of India celebration, Kaveesh said he has made
plans to tweak the existing chatbot and identify areas that may
need improvement. But in the meantime, he’s already working on
a new project: creating a nonprofit with his friends that will help
bridge the digital divide.
“So what we want to do is take computers that haven’t
been used or are obsolete, clean them up and give them a hard
software reset. And we’ll give them to people who need them,”
he said. “For our nonprofit, it’d be nice to have more people,
especially those who live in lower-income areas,
have computers that they could use to get
better jobs, especially now when everything is
digital.”
Right now, Kaveesh said he and his friends
are working on identifying other potential
nonprofit partners. They still have a lot of
work to do, he said, but he’s excited to see
their nonprofit ultimately make a difference in
people’s lives.
And his efforts aren’t going unnoticed by the
teachers and administrators in his school.
Marvin Ridge High marketing teacher Lisa
Hall said Kaveesh has proven himself to be an
innovative thinker and creative individual in her
marketing class this semester.
“I transitioned into the teaching world after
working in the nonprofit sector
myself for several years, so
I fully appreciate Keveesh’s
dedication and desire to start
his own nonprofit organization
that will support the local
community,” she said.
Marvin Ridge High Principal
Donna Cook also commended
Kaveesh for taking the
initiative to contribute his
technology-based skills to the
community.
“As a freshman at Marvin
Ridge High, Kaveesh is
already making a name for
himself in a very positive
way, demonstrating creative
and innovative thinking,” she
said. “I foresee a bright future
ahead for him as he progresses through high school, into college
and career.”
When asked where he sees himself in 10 years, Kaveesh,
like many 15-year-olds, can’t narrow what he wants to do in the
future to just one occupation. But whatever it is, he’s pretty sure
that it will be in the technology field.
“I’d like to do something working with software and trying to
build my own code, or maybe designing websites,” he said. “Yeah,
I think it’d be really fun.”
–This article was provided by the Union County Public Schools
Communication Office