Mentors
Mentors in FIRST volunteer their time and expertise to support teams. They dedicate countless hours to the team whether it's helping with robot design, programming, or offering guidance during competitions. Mentors in FIRST often help work on the robot during weekends, after their job and in the off season to improve the robot. heir commitment goes beyond just the technical aspects; mentors also foster team culture, ensuring that students learn the importance of communication, collaboration, and problem-solving. By volunteering their time mentors help make this program avalible to teams. But they also leave lasting impacts on the students they work with, helping them grow into skilled individuals ready to take on the future.
Hyperdroids has 3 dedicated mentors that they are very thankful for. Some information about them is:
Iskander Karibzhanov is a passionate mentor who brings his analytical expertise and creative problem‐solving skills to FTC robotics team Hyper Droid 10015. He plays a pivotal role in guiding students through programming challenges and leveraging his mathematics background. Iskander has significantly contributed to enhancing robotics education by developing a Java-based simulator for the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) using Webots, an open-source robot simulator. This simulator acts as a bridge between the Qualcomm API used in FTC’s Android applications and the Webots simulation environment, enabling teams to test and refine their robot designs in a virtual setting before physical implementation. This innovative tool provides students with a valuable platform to experiment and learn, thereby enriching their understanding of robotics concepts.
Mike Warren has been mentoring FTC for 3 years now making this his 3rd season. Coming from a background in free/open networking and security software, he’s tackled a learning curve. Mike finds it fun to see real- world objects move using “only” code, and motivational to see students testing, inventing, building, and operating their robots.