Splashing into their season, the Girl’s Water Polo team faced off against Cedar Ridge in their first district game of the year on Friday, Aug. 29 at the RRISD Aquatic Center. Despite their eventual 3-4 loss, the Lady Warriors stayed strong in a tense situation and left with heads held high.

While the team has faced Cedar Ridge previously, they did not expect an easy victory. The Raiders came out of the gate as a formidable challenger, keeping a slight upper hand over the Warrior’s defensive strategies throughout the first half of the game. Momentum was high as the Raiders began to advance, both the team and their spectators synchronous in their title-hungry chants.

“We knew Cedar Ridge was going to be tougher than they had been, and the nerves [might have] affected our play,” Sara Horsey ‘27 said.

Throughout the match, Westwood and Cedar Ridge were neck to neck as the scoreboard lit up on both sides. However, during the second quarter of the game, Rouzhen Ma ‘29, a key asset to Westwood’s offense, had to vacate the match due to a leg cramp. Not only did this affect the team’s dynamic, it also dampened team optimism. Despite the circumstances, the Warriors continued to battle, trying to stay locked in the game.

“I believe this game was not an accurate representation of our skill,” Horsey said. “I reckon we’re going to work [much harder], dig our teeth in, and kick some butt.”

Although the Warriors exerted a great amount of effort, the opposing Cedar Ridge remained dominant in their offense, eventually overtaking the Warriors and striking two goals within the third quarter. With a dry fourth quarter, the Raiders took home the win with a final score of 3-4.

“Hopefully [the rest of the season] will be better than today,” Prajna Parajuli ‘26 said. “I think we can win all of our games. Today, it was our [lack of] defense.”

The Warriors look forward to making a bigger splash in their upcoming match on Tuesday, Sept. 2 against the Round Rock Dragons at the Round Rock Aquatic Center.

Initially, AI wasn’t something he had greatly considered as a career choice — it entered his life more out of curiosity than out of intention. When ChatGPT was first released, it struck him as something with real potential, and the idea of building something with it started to take hold. Soon, he discovered Nodemation (n8n), a platform for creating custom automations, and his focus began to shift.

“When ChatGPT first released, I thought it was [a striking] cool invention. I wanted to do something with it,” Mahadasu said. “Recently, I noticed that you can build your own automations using a separate application.”

This realization marked the beginning of a project that would encompass the tail end of his junior year: an automation that would assist with the time-consuming task of communication within the business space, particularly in trade work. He began small, creating a realistic call assistant capable of handling basic scheduling tasks. This became incredibly beneficial to trade business owners, who constantly juggle calls and communication efforts with their jobs and scheduling.

“[People don’t] have a lot of time to answer calls and bookings and everything, but selling them a service that would help them out and save them a lot of time was my initial business model,” Mahadasu said.

He was able to find early traction through Facebook ads. While he would gain clients through online advertisements, the call system was located on a separate platform, n8n, where customers could easily navigate the automation. Located on this platform, the call assistant would input calls, aid with questions, and assist in scheduling — just like a real assistant. Mahadasu has since moved toward a more advanced service that focuses largely on cost savings for commercial real estate companies, and has found newfound success with this updated approach. His new concept assists with saving money off of lease renewals and preventing any issues that may arise from missed payments.

“[My service helps] prevent missing the lease renewal, so [companies] can save up to $300,000 a year in revenue per property,” Mahadasu said. “For problems that I face, there is a learning curve to create your own automations, and that takes a little bit to get past.”

His new service that helps business owners save money off of lease renewals is able to easily ascertain whether or not a lease has been missed. While it may take time for real estate agents to see this issue, the automation prevents any similar monetary troubles. The path to success hasn’t been completely smooth-sailing, however; recently, various questions have sprouted up over the controversial use of AI.

“There are a lot of ethical questions I was faced with,” Mahadasu said. “[There is] the dilemma with AI replacing humans, and so for that reason, I try to make things that are tools and not replacements. My new venture, the lease renewal system, is not an actual job that a human would do.”

Mahadasu is firm on this distinction. His goal is not to take away jobs, but rather to create opportunities within said jobs. Aside from ethical considerations, Mahadasu was faced with another challenge. While building the automation itself was not easy, selling the idea of it was even more demanding.

“Don’t give up. That’s the biggest thing I’ve learned,” Mahadasu said. “It takes a long time before you finally get a client. In the end, it taught me a lot about how to go about running a business.”

Despite taking on such a time-consuming project, he has found ways to keep the workload of his personal adventures separate from his studies and friendships, being able to work around his existing commitments instead of allowing them to interfere with his social life. Otherwise, he’d be unable to focus and be successful. In the midst of Westwood’s competitive environment, it’s important to understand the balance needed between social and academic priorities in preventing burnout, stress, and in improving motivation and performance. Mahadasu consistently works toward achieving this crucial balance. 

“Prioritizing school and your social life is very important because that’s what keeps you balanced,” Mahadasu said. “This was just a side project. I worked on little bits and pieces here and there. There was no rush to it.”

Much of his balanced mindset has hailed from his school experience. Mahadasu has been active in Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA), participating in the entrepreneurship event. Through this, he’s been able to build strong communication and marketing skills that have aided in the marketing of his own product. Utilizing his foundation in both business and AI, he applied these skills to effectively market the project as a solution for real-world clients.

“Westwood itself has given me a lot of [rigorous] or intensive classwork. That gives [you] the perseverance you need to push through a lot of things,” Mahadasu said. 

Now entering his senior year, Mahadasu begins to look toward the future. Although content with the project’s current status, he has a greater vision for it.

“I want to market it in a way that I can teach it to other people. Using AI and automations is going to be an important skill in the future, and so I see [myself scaling] it bigger,” Mahadasu said.

While he’s not necessarily aiming for a broad impact, he’d like to see it grow locally. His goal is to grow purposefully, teach others how to use these tools, and develop his own knowledge in the process. Unwilling to let fear stand in his way, Mahadasu is able to seamlessly combine his passions for computer science and business in order to carve his own path as a successful high school entrepreneur. 

“I don’t think my project is so exceptional that it stands out to a lot of people,” Mahadasu said. “I think it shows that even with just simple tools, you can build a business that you’re proud of.”