Alum Mentors

Kevin Wilby

Kevin, another parent, mentored Team 696 from 2006-2009. A teacher by trade, he works with the students to share his design and construction knowledge and teach team members the skills needed to operate tools and fabricate parts. He works mainly with the mechanical subsystems, mentoring the design and construction of prototypes through to the final product.

Laurie Wilby

Laurie is another parent who helped the team from 2006-2009. She documented the 2008 season with her photographs and also helped construct many prototypes. From hauling the robot around at short notice, to providing meals, to hosting robotics meetings in the Wilbys' house, she was there to make it happen.

Michael Hennessey

Michael, our resident CAD whiz, has been with the team since 2005. As a team member, he was CAD Leader and a machinist, and led the mechanical subsystems. Now, he helps the younger team members learn CAD, machines parts when he can, and of course is always on hand to fix our computers when they break down!

Bryce Hancock

Bryce, both a parent and a JPL mentor, helped the team for years with the electrical and programming subsystems. From 2005 until 2008, he mentored many students, teaching them programming, soldering, circuitry, and many other skills. Thank you Bryce!

Mike Dolphin

Mike, a mentor from JPL, joined the team for the 2008 season. He was a dedicated mentor, helping the mechanical subsystems with manufacturing and design. Unfortunately, he was only with us for one season, but we enjoyed learning from him!

Aram Ohanis

Aram is the machining instructor at GCC. He has helped the team since 2002, allowing high school students to take his college classes to learn how to operate manual and CNC lathes and mills. He's also spent numerous hours and dedicated a lot of machine time making parts for us.

Avo Terzian

Avo, one of the founding members of Team 696, always stuck around to teach new team members the ropes. He usually spent his time helping the mechanisms students learn how to use the tools in our school's shop. We miss all your jokes, Avo.

Peter Illsley

Peter is another mentor from JPL, who helped the team until 2006. He mainly mentored the mechanical subsystems, and taught many students how to fabricate parts in our in-school shop.

Daniel Limonadi

Daniel is a founding mentor of Team 696. From 2001 to 2005, he mentored Team 696 students, providing physics expertise and mechanical design advice. Even though he's no longer a regular team mentor, he still occasionally visits to provide design help and physics knowledge.

Sarah Gavit

Mark Kauffman

Mark is a manufacturing engineer who mentored our students in construction and design. He has been with the team since 2004, and has helped the team foster partnerships with many of our community sponsors such as Hardcore Racing.

Harout Topchyan

Harout, a founding member of Team 696, always shows up to help us out. He'll straighten up the robotics room, help fabricate parts, and keep us educated about our team history. After all these years, he keeps coming back for more, with unwavering support. Thanks for all your help, Harout!

David Black

David first joined the team in 2002. As a Clark student, he was a main team leader, and as a Clark graduate, he enthusiastically shared his extensive knowledge with each new team member in turn. So many robots wouldn't have been the same without you, David. We miss you!

Chuck DeVore

Mr. DeVore was our team's faculty adviser since its inception. From 2001 until 2008, he served as the "man with the keys." We would never have had a team without Mr. DeVore there to spend hours supervising our meetings. Thank you, Mr. DeVore.

Tony Hernandez

Tony, another parent mentor, mentored the mechanical subsystems in the 2007 season. He even accompanied us to Atlanta for the championships, helping supervise and keep the robot in running condition.

George Stavrev

George joined the team as a student-mentor from GCC in 2007. He worked with both the mechanical and electrical subsystems, mostly helping with the wings and the pneumatics, and also assisting the programming team.

Chris Voorhees

Chris is a JPL mentor who helped found Team 696. He was a team mentor until 2006, mentoring mainly the mechanical subsystems and the systems team. He also fabricated parts for the team in our shop at Clark.

Mark Balzer

Satish Krishnan

Ross Kelsey

Ross Kelsey was a mentor from our sponsor Hamilton Tool and Engineering. In 2001 and 2002, he mentored the team machinists and made parts for us in the Hamilton shop. In every season, he has been very generous with making parts for us at short notice and providing machining advice.

Ian Ferguson

Ian is another JPL engineer who has mentored the team since 2008. He assists the programming students, helping them learn Labview in order to develop the robot code. He also helps the electrical students with wiring, soldering, and much more.

Oscar Odegaard

Oscar is a parent who began to mentor Team 696 in the 2009 season. He mentored the mechanical subsystems with various design questions, and used his knowledge of construction to help fabricate robot parts. He even came up with the idea for our wickedly cool "Anti-ABS" traction control system on String Theory!

Jennifer Hughes

Mrs. Hughes was an engineering teacher at Clark and GCC. She joined the team in 2007 as our second faculty adviser. Without her, we would never have been able to reach Atlanta for Nationals that season. Thank you for all your hard work, perseverance, and spirit, Mrs. Hughes!

Andy Carmain

Andy mentored the team from 2005 to 2008. He assisted mainly with the mechanical subsystems, providing design advice and educating us about interference. Thanks for all the life lessons, Andy, and good luck in San Francisco.

Sterling Hirsh

Sterling was a student-mentor from Glendale Commmunity College who joined the team in 2007. During the 2007 and 2008 seasons, he assisted the programming team with writing code to control the robot functions.

Areg Hayrapetian

Areg is a team alumnus who was CAD Leader during the 2006 season. He has participated on Team 696 since 2004, and in 2007, he came back to teach new students the art of Autodesk Inventor.

Chris Kilpatrick

Chris was a founding member of Team 696. A team member from 2001 until 2003, and a team mentor after that, he was integral to the building processes of many 696 robots.