It was a quiet afternoon in Saratoga at the 1st robotics team gathering of the season, as the team emerged from the pandemic. Team members were engaged in quiet, polite conversation. That is, until Ryan Lin 23’ glided into the room, grabbed himself a sandwich, sat down, and unleashed his energy upon the room. The room erupted into jokes, laughter, and anecdotal stories! Carefree, he chatted late into the day and sipped boba with fellow robotics team mates.

Behind that carefree, relaxed attitude, Ryan is always thinking, coming up with ideas for his clubs, and is busy, busy, busy. Ryan is the captain of the OHS robotics team, a competitive swimmer, and leader of the Advanced Programming club, all the while balancing a full OHS course load and finding time for his friends and family.

His longtime friend and robotics co-conspirator, Thomas Lu ‘22, describes him as “ one of the most creative, energetic, and amiable people I know”. Reflecting on the time they spent together during robotics, Thomas says, “In my time working with him on robotics, I remember him as the heart of the team, from working tirelessly to ensure new members were included, to leading boba runs after meetings. I’m certain that his passion and determination will take him far”.

Over the 5 years that Ryan has been part of the robotics club he’s held several jobs: team member, software lead, and captain. His face lights up at the mere mention of the club.

“It’s a great collaborative environment and you’re working with teammates on a common goal, to build a robot,” Ryan says. He enjoys the fact that “[he] can both meet other people and sharpen up some of those technical skills as well”.

Not only does it electrify him, the robotics team is very important to Ryan. Last year, when the robotics team’s software code ran into issues just days before a big competition he stayed up all night working on it. When questioned about this he says, “yeah, it was no big deal. It was pretty late”.

While robotics is normally stressed as an activity with technical value, Ryan says, “The soft skills we learn in Robotics are pretty undervalued, like communication and working with people.”

Regarding his role as mentor to newer members, Ryan says, “It has been a really amazing experience to get to know people and see my younger self in them”. But, it’s not always easy, Ryan says, “It is hard to explain things to people because not everybody’s brain is wired the same way. You have to kind of reframe things for people. It’s been rough, fun and I wouldn’t trade it for anything”.

After a long tenure on the team, Ryan, a senior, reflects on his goals for this year “I want to leave everybody with the knowledge that I’ve gained over the years and carry on the robotics club traditions.”

Besides his contributions to the robotics team in hardware and software, Ryan is also interested in the more theoretical problems that advanced programming presents. The Advanced Programming Club was Ryan’s own brainchild, a result of his enthusiasm for advanced programming topics. He says, “It’s been a really cool journey to start my own club and work with lots of people. It’s grown since my first year here, and it’s great to see underclassmen in this field!”

Ryan started the club after recognizing a need in the OHS community. He says, “There weren’t any teacher-backed advanced programming focused clubs, so when Dr. Thananjeyan approached me, I was super enthused and began to fully flesh out the idea.” Dr. Thananjeyan describes Ryan as “an excellent and a confident student who never hesitates to take additional leadership responsibilities and help other students”.

To describe the club in a few sentences, Ryan says: “There’s two things we do in the club. One is practicing for USACO, the Computing Olympiad. The other is covering programming concepts you don’t normally see: networks, parody bits, hamming codes, threaded programming.” He finds the discussions both free flowing and fulfilling.
Another important aspect of Ryan’s life is competitively swimming for his team. Ryan really enjoys swimming because it gives him a chance “to focus solely on improving himself” and his speed. It’s also given him multiple opportunities to meet new people. Last year, he had the opportunity to go to the Olympic training center to meet Olympians and other fast swimmers and learn about swimming from them.

Ryan is passionate about swimming: he goes to practices most days and sometimes even twice a day, totaling around 20 hours a week! (Ryan sends along this equation on his practice hours “3 x 4 + 3 x 1.5 + 3”).

Sometimes the going gets tough. Ryan recounts his busiest day “waking up, going to practice, coming home, classes, homework, more practicing, and then going right back to bed”. Ryan is “motivated by the people around [him]”. What motivates him is seeing other people “researching something they care about, going to state level for a competition”. He says “if other people can do it, I can do it too”.

Ryan has greatly enjoyed his years at the OHS and, as a senior, has advice for the younger OHS community: “Don’t be afraid to be yourself and don’t get too caught up in the details!”