Our Mentors
Mike Corsetto
|
2016 sacramento woodie flowers award winner.pdf | |
File Size: | 349 kb |
File Type: |
Brook Ostrom
Lead Mentor / business and media
Brook Ostrom has mentored our team since 2014 and has more than 35 years of experience in public relations, marketing and graphic design, and writing and editing for a variety of publications. He graduated from UC Davis with a Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Economics and Business Management. He started mentoring as a parent and has continued to expand his involvement with the team in retirement. For Brook, it's an opportunity to work with students to help build their writing and communication skills using a variety of media and platforms.
Steve Harvey
|
woodie flowers 2015 sacramento regional winner.pdf | |
File Size: | 351 kb |
File Type: |
Kanwardeep Singh
lead teacher
Kanwardeep Singh began mentoring Citrus Circuits in 2021. She is the Advanced Robotics teacher at Davis Senior High School and teaches Multimedia, Robotics, and Computer Science at Holmes Junior High. She received her bachelor's and master’s in Education from UC Davis. Kanwar’s interest in programming began when she worked in a UC Davis research lab affiliated with the MIND Institute. She pursued her interest in programming by teaching a Robotics and Coding class at Holmes Junior High School.
Business and media
Jackson DurhamJackson was on the team from offseason of 2013 till 2016. He started mentoring the team in 2022. He has an A.A in photography. With this, he freelances for various companies. In 2017 he also started pursuing videography with his photography skills, and also works at a prototyping incubator at Sacramento city college called the maker space. His goal is to help people learn media and how FRC Games work.
|
Richard mccannRichard McCann has mentored both the Software Scouting and Business and Media subteams since 2011. He’s a resource economist with over 30 years of experience and currently does statistical analysis and strategic planning, as well as cost accounting. He attended UC Berkeley for his Bachelor of Science in Political Economy of Natural Resources and Doctorate in Agricultural and Resource Economics and University of Michigan for a Master of Public Policy. Richard joined after his son joined the team as a senior and originally planned to work solely with fundraising. He grew interested in the scouting aspect of the team during the season and has continued to mentor both subteams since.
|
Hardware Fabrication and Design
DEvin castelLucciDevin joined the team during the offseason of 2005 as student on the team and after graduating high school became a mentor that specializes in fabrication. He’s the Lead Fabricator at Advanced Farming Technologies that build robots that harvest strawberries and apples. In his spare time he mentors Team 5458 Digital Minds from Woodland. He's always wanted to work with robots, and after seeing a demo by the team felt a moment of discovery and joined the team instantly.
|
|
Payton WongPayton joined our team in the summer of 2021 and was a mentor for Team 846, The Funky Monkeys, for over 18 years. He graduated San Jose State University with a Baccalaureate in Nursing and is a retired critical care trauma nurse and worked in organ donation most of his career. Prior to his 2nd career in nursing, Payton was (and still is) a R&D machinist with over 30 years of machining experience in the medical device, aerospace, thermoforming and tech industries. He enjoys teaching others how to "fish" by sharing his manufacturing experience, and guiding the students in safe and efficient methods of machining. Payton also encourages students to enhance their critical thinking and communication skills.
|
Nik Murray
Nik Murray started mentoring 1678 in 2022 and passed away in 2023 due to health complications. Nik was previously a student on Team 701 RoboVikes and a mentor on Team 148 Robowranglers. A graduate in mechanical engineering from Kettering University, he also worked as a flight instructor. He applied the same concepts from flight instructing to mentoring 1678's electrical team, and loved seeing students work through difficult issues and spark new ideas. In memory of Nik, the Davis Robotics Foundation has established the Niklas Murray Memorial Scholarship to be given each year at Capital City Classic. More information on the scholarship is under Support Us on our website.
|
Matt golman |
Avery Phimmasehn |
Matt Golman has mentored our team since 2022. Prior to joining 1678, he was a student and later a mentor for Team 2102. He graduated from Lafayette College with bachelor's degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Studio Art, and is now a mechanical engineer at Advanced Farm Technologies designing autonomous fruit harvesters. On the team he does design training, CAD reviews, and prototype testing, and enjoys watching students grow in confidence and competence as they advance through the team.
|
Avery is a hardware mentor who joined the team as a student in 2014 and began mentoring fall 2022. He graduated from San Diego State University with a bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering. Avery works at Advanced Farm Technologies in Davis as a mechanical engineer. He enjoys seeing the creativity that the students bring to the team and wants to help students gain new and meaningful experiences through their time in FIRST.
|
Software Robot and Scouting
Wes HardakerWes Hardaker joined the team as a Software mentor during the offseason of 2018. He’s a computer scientist and programmer with 30+ years of experience who currently works as a senior computer scientist for The University of Southern California’s Information Sciences Institute. He attended UC Davis, where he received a Master in Electrical Engineering. He joined the team the same year as his son did when he realized he could apply his experience in programming to help the team. Since then he’s become inspired by team culture and enjoys working with students to spread and share ideas.
|
Austin HaddoxAustin Haddox joined the team during the 2018 offseason as a Strategy and Hardware mentor. He has had experience at team 2085 RoboDogs for two years, and is a FIRST alumni of the same team. He has an Associate's Degree in General Mathematics and a Bachelor's Degree in Economics from Solano Community College. He also works as a data analyst for an insurance company. He joined the team to learn from the mentors of 1678 and to hopefully apply what he learns to his own team when he moves.
|
steve cohanSteve Cohan began mentoring in 2022 after retiring from a 35 year career in robotics and mechatronic systems. He has worked in domains such as aerospace, nuclear, surgical robotics, and most recently subsea robotics, where his last position was Vice President of Product Development at TechnipFMC Schilling Robotics in Davis.Steve is a strong believer in mechatronic design and implementation, in which the mechanical, electrical, and software disciplines develop concepts, design, test and iterate together. This approach helps teams overcome siloed thinking and gain common, in depth understanding of the solutions they create. He hopes to help the team experience working in this way during this first experience in FIRST mentoring.
|
|
OUtreach
David SolomonDavid Solomon joined the team as an outreach mentor during the 2018 offseason. He received a Bachelor of Art in Architecture from UC Berkeley in 1987, where he served as a teaching assistant in Structural Engineering for Architects. He taught STEM through an architects-in-schools program, and ran the outreach for an urban development and infrastructure program in Vientiane, Laos. He is currently a supervising architect for the State of California and has extensive experience in project management. His kids' involvement in DYR encouraged him to volunteer with 1678 to help with outreach activities.
|
luan hEImlichLuan graduated from Carnegie-Mellon University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with a Master’s degree in Business Administration and Entrepreneurship. She has worked as a software engineer at IBM, Siemens, and Cisco, and co-founded two US-based start-up companies. Luan’s journey with FIRST started in New Hampshire by mentoring several of her daughters’ FRC and FLL teams before moving to Australia in 2009. Since then, she was instrumental in founding FIRST Australia, serving as its Director, and mentoring FRC Team 3132, Thunder Down Under (2017 Hall of Fame inductee). She has shared the FLL World Festival Coach of the Year (2009) and FRC Granite State Regional Volunteer of the Year (2010), and received the FRC Hawaiian Regional Woodie Flowers Award (2014). She has also served on the FIRST Executive Advisory Board and is now a Senior Regional Director for FIRST California.
|
Kristine HarveyKristine Harvey has been on the team since 2014 when we presented our first Chairman’s submission. She’s been a French teacher for 27 years and has spread ideas of FIRST in multiple other countries, making contacts from around the world. She attended UC Davis and received a Bachelor of Arts in both French and English, as well as a Masters in Applied Linguistics. She joined the team to work with former students in a new capacity and to meet new students. She’s encouraged students to join the team for years and enjoys seeing where they end up on the team.
|