LEADING BY DESIGN: Blue Valley North student’s robotics club inspires future engineers

Every student has unique passions, and for Blue Valley North senior Sriram Srinivasa Kalki that passion is robotics. Kalki first learned about robotics at Overland Trail Middle, where his gifted teacher Emily Gill encouraged him to explore the field.

“For my first robotics project freshman year, we built a Halloween costume for a student with disabilities and designed something that worked with a wheelchair,” Kalki said. “We even created an electronic Coke dispenser that could be controlled through telekinesis. Seeing how all of the wires worked made me interested in programming.”

During his freshman year at Blue Valley North, Kalki founded the school’s FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) club, a program that encourages students to design, build and program robots to compete in various challenges. While Kalki was already a member of a community robotics team, he recognized a growing interest among his peers and an opportunity to expand access to robotics at his school. With support from the Blue Valley

Educational Foundation, the club received a grant to fund their program to participate in competitions.

Kalki approached Tanner Crow, a computer science teacher at Blue Valley North, about becoming the sponsor of the FTC club, coined the Silver Stallions. Crow said Kalki took on many of the club's responsibilities, such as walking the team through how to build and program a robot.

“He empowered a group of students who may not have had that feeling in other extracurricular activities,” Crow said. “After last year's excitement and success, my room is packed every meeting with more kids than we can handle, and I love every minute of it.”

Robotics has many layers — incorporating aspects of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education and hands-on experiences in coding, design, programming, computer science and physics.

The Silver Stallions begin each season with all club members working together on various aspects of team-selected projects. As the FTC competition approaches, the Silver Stallions form a focused sub-team of 15 members, selecting individuals for specific roles on each project.

During the team's 2024 season, the Silver Stallions ranked in the top 10 in the state and was the highest-ranked first-year team.

Kalki values the opportunity to help others, which is why his team regularly goes to Valley Park Elementary to work with students on building robots using Lego bricks. He emphasizes the valuable lessons robotics offers, including the opportunity to develop strong leadership skills.

“In robotics, there are several different facets students can explore,” Kalki said. “If a student is more inclined toward the building, they can screw parts together. If they’re interested in design, they can work on combining parts or creating a blueprint of the robot. In robotics, you can choose your own path, and that is what I like about it.”