By Lori BODNAR, intern

Crescenta Valley High School 2020 graduate Rohin Manvi was recently named a recipient of a Milken Scholars award. Manvi was one of 11 students in the greater Los Angeles area to receive the prestigious award.

The Milken Scholars program was founded in 1989 by Mike and Lori Milken to honor and give financial assistance to exceptional students based on academics, community service, leadership, and the ability to overcome obstacles or personal challenges, according the organization’s website. The scholarship is open to college-bound high school seniors in the Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and New York City areas. The scholarship includes $10,000 in cash and mentoring and resources for life, including career-related counseling, assistance in securing internships, opportunities for community service and a fund to assist in the pursuit of any post-undergraduate career goals.

“We’re proud to welcome these outstanding young people to the Milken Scholar family,” stated Chairman Mike Milken. “At this difficult time for our nation, we know that they – like all the Scholars over the years – will continue working to change the world for the better.”

In many ways, Manvi has already done that. He designed a water sensor and WaterNotifier app so that villagers in rural India will know when water will flow into their area. Most of the time, water is turned off in the villages. The days and times when the water flows from the pipes are random.

“Families cannot afford to miss a chance to collect water, leading women and children – like my aunt and grandmother – to resort to watch agonizingly over the pipes. Despite the lengths they go, large portions of water are still lost to the ground before collection,” Manvi said. “To alert them and other villagers when the water is supplied, my goal was to develop a completely self-sustainable, affordable and scalable water sensor that could communicate information to thousands of villagers who lack Internet, reliable electricity and smartphones. My company directly impacts over 100,000 lives, saves an estimated 40,000 liters of water, and saves 500,000 man-hours every year.”

There were many challenges that Manvi faced during his project.

“Especially in the beginning, when work started to feel like an obligation and growth was still intangible, I questioned why I woke up at 3 a.m. every day to work on this project,” he said. “Motivation was scarce when flight expenses restrained me from even seeing the faces of the villagers, and when successful implementation only came after dozens of failures the prospect of repeating the process on a larger scale seemed daunting. The project meant an endless number of design iterations, hiring and training employees, dealing with Indian politics and becoming nearly nocturnal to make video calls to manage operations remotely. I worked on the first design for six months only for local infrastructure to cause it to malfunction.”

Despite all the challenges Manvi faced, he was able to install an effective water sensor so villagers in India know when water flows in their area.

Manvi’s passion for science, technology, engineering and math [STEM] has set his innovations in motion.

“As I strive to do more,” he said, “my love for STEM has been a driving force behind the innovations I’ve only just begun to implement. Whether I am designing new electrical circuits and software or debating with my advisors over the next step to take, the whole experience has enabled me to realize and express my passion for helping others.”

Manvi’s original WaterNotifier app won the 2017 Congressional App Challenge for California’s 28th District. He serves as a project advisor for CV Enterprises, a software company for CVHS students overseen by the computer science teacher. He also was co-captain of the CVHS Science Bowl, a CVHS Link Crew leader, a FIRST Robotics Competition team leader, and AP Scholar with Distinction. Manvi was also the only high school student selected to judge Glendale’s Tech Week Awards. He teaches practical electrical engineering to students at two schools in rural India, leading classes remotely.

Manvi looks ahead to how the Milken Scholars award will further his goals.

“I will be using the scholarship money to cover my student contribution to attend Stanford,” he said. “I will most likely be majoring in computer science. In the future, I would like to start or be a part of a startup company as an entrepreneur.”

Another 2020 CVHS graduate, Jiyoun Roh, was also a Milken Scholars award recipient. Her achievements will be shared next week.

  Lori BODNAR