Hi! My name is Rohith and I am the Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Connected Crosswalk Assistance (CoCA), and a student of the class of 2025 at TJHSST. The idea of CoCA was created after watching numerous visually-impaired individuals in my community struggle to cross the street. Therefore, along with Anirudh, Tanush, Arnav, and Adithiya, I came up with the idea of being able to remotely access and activate crosswalks from the push of a button. As a high schooler, our ideas are often shut down due to a lack of "experience" and "practicality", however, I wish to show everyone that with passion and perseverance, even our wildest dreams are achievable. As your CEO, my job is to ensure that all of the teams achieve our startup's goals which include the CAD of the walking cane, the development of our computer vision algorithm, the completion of our research papers, the securing of funds and grants, and obtaining a patent for our propietary technology.

Hi, I'm Tanush and I am the Chief Operations Officer and co-founder for CoCA. I am a student of the class of 2025 at TJ. I've always pondered how things around us can be improved and how the engineering design process is a great tool that I use in various scenarios every day. I can put my ideas into action with engineering, and hope to see this same principle in others. With CoCA, there are no limits as our ideas can change the visually-impaired community for the better! As the COO, it is my duty to ensure that the development for the walking cane is designed in order to allow for the production of our product. Outside of CoCA, I enjoy researching the latest technologies while also being on my school's cross country and track teams.

Hi Everyone! My name is Adithiya Balaguru and I am the Chief Financial Officer and a co-founder for CoCA. I am a Junior at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. As a co-founder of this startup organization, my role primarily focuses on licensing patents and exclusive rights for our product, securing funds and grants, partnering with sponsors, and all in all expanding the financial forefront of our organization. I have experience raising funds for other major clubs and organizations and I have the ability to form strategic partnerships that will allow us to advance rapidly. I joined CoCA to help the visually impaired community face their daily struggles in order to eliminate the exclusion of certain tasks that they are presented with. Outside school and work, I enjoy playing soccer and listening to Drake.

Hello! My name is Arnav Bhalla and I am a Junior at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, class of 2025. As the Chief Marketing Officer and a co-founder at CoCA, my role is to drive the marketing in order to reach out and obtain sponsors while also continuing our research on important improvements that we may make to our smart walking cane. I also lead the publication process of our technical reports in order to share our research and product to the engineering community. I am interested in the interdisciplinary study of medicine and artificial intelligence, with an interest in computational, cellular, and molecular neuroscience. I enjoy traveling, racing Formula 1 cars, playing golf, and rowing.

Hi! I'm Anirudh, the Chief Technology Officer and a co-founder of CoCA, and a student from the class of 2024 at TJHSST. The capability of high-schoolers is often undermined because of financial and knowledge limitations, but those who have a true passion and imagination are destined to succeed. “The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge, but imagination,” as Albert Einstein said, these limitations are a mirage of what a student can truly accomplish. As the CTO of this startup organization, I am responsible for managing the software team, which means keeping track of all sub-teams, members, and progress, along with being the head programmer. Besides programming and managing, I also help in the Engineering and Research team when it comes to integrating our project with software.