Years in FIRST: 8
Mentor since: Rookie Year

Team alum Courtney Dunham, who now attends RPI, describes Brian Bruneau’s influence on her life: "Mr. Bruneau made us think and solve our issues by pushing us to the limits, making us stronger in the end. Last year, giving us the ultimatum that we had to earn our way to Championships was a brilliant idea. He made us try our hardest and prove ourselves; we worked countless hours and accomplished our goal. He is one of the most self-less people I have met and I give my thanks to him every chance I get for giving me the opportunity to find my niche. I never felt like I truly belonged in the activities I did before, until Robotics. Mr. Bruneau changed my life, for the better. Through FIRST, I have learned how to work well in a team and cooperate to get a task done, and have gained important leadership skills. My experience with Mr. Bruneau in FIRST was the driving force behind my decision to major in aerospace and mechanical engineering."

Mentor since: Second Year

Larry Kenney worked in depth with our programming team. He was a great help in properly explaining PID (proportional–integral–derivative controller) to our entire team in such a way that even the non-programmers could understand. PID control is a crucial part in our hybrid mode which allows us to drive straight instead of hoping that our drive train is good enough to go straight on its own. He assisted us in making sure that our ideas for programming made sense before we spent the time to code them in C.

Mentor since: Second Year

Terry Loper is a second year mentor from AA Globe with specialties in machining and material selection. Terry is a dedicated mentor who teaches students how to work with metal. Terry has taught students how to drill steel compounds, tap sprockets and perform precision machining. Terry always has his eye out for more efficient means of operation and truly has earned the nickname of “The Thinker.” His precise skills came in use when we developed our drive train, and he machined several key components. Through welding the kit bot frame, he saved us just enough weight to make the cut.

Mark Angelos was one of the first to answer our call to AAI. He has been instrumental to the club’s foundation, and has been one of our main spokesmen for AAI. He has helped to pull resources for our club from all over the company. His job as a systems engineer was vital to the training session and helping leadership build their skills. He taught classes on Programmatics and Systems Engineering to help us through build season and to keep things on schedule.

Mentor Since: Third Year

Jim Barbour instantly locked onto the club and has become one of the most dedicated mentors on the team. He worked with the electrical team to layout and wire the components. His background in accident investigation at AAI helped us to diagnose an odd electrical bug upon initial testing of the robot.

Mentor Since: Rookie Year

Mentor since: Rookie Year

Mr. Hecht was a great assistance to our club when it came to using sensors in an intelligent way. He made the push to convert from the original idea of using a compass to find heading to using the solid state gyroscope provided to us by FIRST. He also had the ingenious idea of utilizing two VEX color sensors and some black electrical tape to be able to put set heights into our arm. Without his help, we would have not been able to turn at all in hybrid mode.