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Our Mentors
Our mentors act as the team's most valuable and trusted resources. Volunteering their time and energy to help our team, we would not be where we are today without their knowledge and advice.
Sohini Stone
Head Mentor: Strategy, Leadership & Team Development, Logistics - since 2012
Sohini is a physician and has been working in the Health Tech space as the Chief Medical Officer for Global Employee Health for the past 7.5 years at Google. She has been part of FIRST robotics since 1997 as a former member of FRC Team 151 and a former mentor of FRC Team 246.
David Dobervich
FHS Support - since 2010
Mr. D studied cognitive science, computer science and philosophy at Berkeley as an undergrad, and after working briefly as a backend developer, got a Master's in math education from Stanford. He has worked as a teacher at Fremont High School ever since and continues to work on personal programming, robotics and other projects.
Non-Robot Mentors
Aparna Bhargava
BaM Mentor - since 2014
Aparna got her Masters in Computer Science and Engineering from Santa Clara University. She co-founded 3 tech startups. She has mentored FLL teams and is a mentor at FHS Robotics since 2014. She was FHS PTSA president and is a parent of two Firebots alumni.
Nick Hammes
Community Impact Mentor - since 2022
Nick studied Computer Science, Philosophy, and Linguistics at the University of Minnesota, and is a Technical Program Manager at Google. He has previously been a business mentor on FRC teams 254 and 2855, competed in the short-lived college-level FIRST demo, and frequently volunteers as an Emcee or Game Announcer in all FIRST programs, including Game Announcing FTC at FIRST Championships since 2017.
Andrew Kao
BaM Mentor - since 2023
Andrew got his Bachelor's and Master degrees in EECS from MIT. After working through the many booms and busts of the tech industry, he started his own apps company. He has always enjoyed building things and organizations. He now is delighted to be working with the next generation of makers, movers, and entrepreneurs.
Liam Fay
Awards Mentor - since 2024
Liam Fay is a Stanford graduate student in mechanical engineering. He is an alumnus of 2485 (‘16-‘18).
Rhiannon Elliot
BaM Mentor - since 2025
Rhiannon has a BS in Human Development & Family Science from CSU Monterey Bay, and Associate Degrees in Child & Adolescent Development and Interdisciplinary Studies. She has been volunteering with FRC since 2019 as a field resetter, scorekeeper, and field supervisor.
Mechanical Mentors
Sean Stone
FRC Design Lead Mentor - since 2012
Sean has a BS in Electromechanical Engineering from Wentworth Institute of Technology. He has worked in the Aerospace, Oil & Gas, Medical and Consumer Electronics industries for large global companies and small startups. He was a student member of FRC Team 151. Before mentoring the Firebots, he mentored FRC Team 246 and FRC Team 1922.
Software Mentors
Matt Smith
FRC Software Lead Mentor - since 2021
Matt has previously been a member of and mentored FRC Team 2172. He first participated in FIRST in 2008. Outside of robotics, Matt is a software engineer at Google and enjoys playing Japanese taiko drums.
Ruth Nuttall
FRC Software Mentor - since 2024
Ruth studied Computer Science at California State Polytechnic, Pomona receiving a Bachelors before going on to work at Northrop Grumman and then two HealthTech startups as Software Engineer. Having been involved with FIRST for just over 10 years she has been on teams such as 399, 1538, 7415, and 1967 before coming to 3501 and volunteers extensible in roles such as FTA, CSA, or whatever needs filled out that weekend.
Rafael Piacsek
FRC Software Mentor - since 2024
Rafael earned his BS in Computer Science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and is currently a Software Engineer at Google. His FIRST journey began as a member of an FLL team in Brazil and continued with FTC Team 17156 in the US. While he didn't have the opportunity to compete in FRC as a student, he is excited to contribute as a mentor for FRC Team 3501.
FTC Mentors
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Arie Vayner
FTC Lead Mentor & Team 16532 Mentor - since 2016
Arie first mentored the FRC 3501 team for two years and moved to FTC for the 2018-2019 season. He holds a BS in computer science and works at Google as an Engineering Manager.
Madhuri Ramanathan
FTC Team 26106 Mentor - since 2014
Madhuri got her Bachelor’s degree in Instrumentation Engineering and her Master’s degree in Computer Engineering from Boston University. She was in video conferencing technology, but it lead her to a software CRM job. When her son joined FHS Robotics, she became a mentor the same year and has enjoyed working with the students each year since.
Ashok Chandy
FTC Team 26106 Mentor - since 2022
Ashok first started as an FTC mentor with Infernobots in 2022, and prior to that he was a coach for a rookie FLL team in 2020-21. Ashok has a Masters Degree in Mechanical Engineering and enjoys working on automotive safety-critical systems and technologies. His recent interest has been on autonomous driving systems having working at Apple, Argo AI and now at Volkswagen.
Manoj Panicker
FTC Team 16532 Mentor - since 2023
Manoj has been in the bay area for over 20 years now and loves the weather, the people, and the awesome food. He has led technical teams in semiconductor companies like Marvell, Intel, and AMD focusing on kernel & system software that work with high-speed Ethernet devices. He's enjoyed being a parent coach for his son's team for 4 years of VEX IQ and has been involved in Fremont High School's robotics program since 2023.
David Rabinowitz
FTC Team 16533 Mentor - since 2023
David first started as an FTC mentor with Sparkbots in 2023. He holds an MSc in computer science and works at Google as a software engineer.
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