Look for more senior profiles in our May issue.

Senior Jai Patel has been fascinated with engineering concepts since he was in sixth grade, playing with his building blocks.

“Any time I build Legos, I imagine how I would construct an actual contraption that can reach for the skies,” Patel said. 

That childhood hobby continued through high school, which led to his decision to apply for a summer internship in 2024 with a company known for building aircraft that “reach for the skies” — Boeing in Huntington Beach.

“I was looking for experience to enhance my passion for aerospace engineering; I was looking for opportunities to gain experience toward my goal of becoming a great engineer,” Patel said. “I gave it my all to apply through the application to not miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.” 

The internship applicant said he had asked his peers who interned there before what they did and how it went.

Although the former interns had signed non-disclosure forms because Boeing has several classified projects with the government’s defense sector, Patel said they were able to provide a general idea of what to expect:

• Workload would not be overwhelming.
• Expect to learn new things and apply that knowledge to actual tasks.

The then-rising senior became one of the six in Orange County to get admitted to the program, but when Patel met his mentor on his first day, July 17, he said he was surprised to learn that aerospace construction concepts wouldn’t be on the top of the list of things to learn.

“He escorted me and the other intern guy from Brea Olinda [High School], and the first words that came out of his mouth after the initial set of greetings were, ‘How would you like to take on a challenge … writing a book perhaps?’” he said.

The mentor, whom Patel declined to identify, told him and his co-intern, Raymond Suh, that the book’s topic had to be STEM related and that it had to be submitted within two weeks, Patel said.

“STEM is such a vast field; being able to point my finger on a topic to write about would be too random,” he said. “So, my mentor suggested that I try learning a programming language that would help me out in the future.”

With Suh, Patel co-authored his book, Statistical Programming Essentials: R & Python, a guide on statistical programming with Python and R. The nearly 300-page paperback is available for purchase on Amazon for $22.99.

“I remember telling my friend, Ethan Hsu, about how tedious of a task it was going to be, but as the days went on, the whole process was starting to become enjoyable and interesting,” Patel said.

Unlike classic novels like F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, which took two years to complete, or Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, which took nearly three years to write, Patel said he and his partner finished their non-fiction text in four weeks. 

Patel said he and Suh mainly worked on the 15 chapters independently until it came time to peer edit and review each other’s work alongside their mentor, whose name is mentioned in the book.

Rarely seeing his mentor, the first-time author said he and Suh would often meet on a call platform called Webex, where they held weekly gatherings to go over their progress. 

The finished product caters to those interested in data analysis, as the first paragraph of the back page states:

“In a world where data has never been so accessible yet of such high value, the ability to analyze and interpret that information has emerged as an invaluable quality. Many of the numerous topics under data analysis concepts have been put together in this book to provide readers with the adequate knowledge to understand the fundamentals of statistical programming.”

CREATING THEIR PUBLISHED WORK

With the given limited time frame of a summer internship, Suh said picking a subject was the hardest part.

“Jai and I first brought the idea to our mentor during a brainstorming session held online on how to channel our [computer] programming knowledge into a meaningful project,” the Brea Olinda student said. “Initially, we considered focusing broadly on statistics, but after discussing with our mentor, we realized that the approach was far too extensive to tackle effectively.”

Hsu said he had observed the whole process of Patel and Suh’s work while Hsu was also interning at Boeing.

“It is inspiring to see how [Patel and Suh] synthesized such complex topics into a book that can even explain the concepts to someone new to it,” he said. 

Although someone without prior experience writing a book would find such a project daunting, Patel said this task was viewed no differently than another homework assignment and was something he could mention about in his essay for college admissions.

“I wanted to view this whole project as another achievement I can rack up,” he said. “I just wanted to prove to others and colleges that I am capable of taking on ideas and creating a product.”

While balancing his data science internship courses online from 7 a.m.-3 p.m. on the weekdays, Patel said he ended up spending 12 hours a day outside of his in-person internship working on the book and learning the programming language, R, which he was using to write about. 

Meanwhile, Suh focused on writing the Python sections. 

Because both of them signed non-disclosure agreements with Boeing, they are unable to share specific details regarding their other internship projects. 

“I would often stay up late at night [writing], which was pretty exhausting, but I just chugged through it with some coffee and adrenaline,” the then-rising senior said. 

His mentor would do frequent check-ups with them, following up on every chapter they submitted to check for accuracy and errors, he said. 

Patel said by the end of July, the final draft was completed, leaving one simple task: publication.

THE FINAL PRODUCT

Both interns decided to include quotes from famous people before every chapter to provide a unique experience for readers. The Brea Olinda intern said this idea was to give readers something to indulge in while reading the book’s content. 

“One of my favorite quotes in the book is, ‘The greatest value of a picture is when it forces us to notice what we never expected to see,’” said Suh, referring to mathematical statistician John Tukey’s statement used at the start of “Chapter 10: Descriptive Statistics in Python.” “I think it perfectly encapsulates one of the most powerful aspects of statistical analysis — its ability to uncover insights like trends and patterns.”

Patel said he asked his friend, Caleb Kim, to design the front cover, which features a snake (representing the Python language) wrapped around a backpack with a computer monitor and a mouse (the animal) sticking out of it.

In addition to featuring quotes, the authors also decided to add colored diagrams and graphs to break up the lengthy texts to help readers get more visually connected to the concepts.

“It’s common logic that pictures with colors lead to a better view and understanding than black and white,” Patel said.

The young writer also said Amazon was the best platform to sell the book because online merchant covers the whole process of the publication from creating the book to delivering it to customers.

“Getting to hold the work that I poured hours into finally was quite rewarding I would say,” he said. “But, I think the knowledge I learned from studying to write the book was more memorable because I can actually apply it in real-world scenarios.”

Currently, approximately 60 copies of the book have been sold, including those gifted to the mentor and other Boeing workers who helped them through their process. 

Math and computer science teacher Myra Deister, whom Patel gifted a book to earlier this school year, acknowledged the rare opportunity that Patel and Suh had for their internship.

“This is the first time one of our students has published a book through the Boeing internship program, and it’s such an exciting achievement,” said Deister, who is among those on the Boeing intern selection committee since 2019.

Science teacher Chris Peoples, Patel’s physics teacher for the past two years, said he looks forward to reading Patel’s book upon also getting a copy.

“I bought the book early to support his project,” Peoples said. “Honestly, I have not read it yet, but I know it’s full of interesting information that I plan on reading soon.” 

With money earned from the 60 copies sold, the senior said he and his writing partner have agreed to donate the profits to Friends of Orange County’s Homeless Pets.

“I’m big on giving back to the community, and since I don’t see this book project as a long-term business venture, I’m willing to give away its profits,” Patel said.

Besides the studies and hours of work put into this text, the senior said his experience ended up a memorable one; metaphorically, he did end up erecting something to reach an audience.

“Although this was just another hurdle to overcome, being able to always get the opportunities to challenge myself is something that I want,” Patel said.