After all of the years that our staff has been a part of the FIRST experience, whether as team members, volunteers or mentors, you would think that we would have lost that sense of excitement and wonder around these kind of events. Oh, but it's actually quite the contrary. We still love being right in the middle of it all. The best part of producing FIRST Looks for us is when we talk with a student who really just gets it. We certainly had a lot of fun getting to know Estavan from FIRST Robotics Competition 945, Banana Robotics.
At the time of the competition, Estavan was a Senior at Colonial High School in Orlando. And if he didn't tell us that this was his first year on the robotics team, we definitely would not have known. He had all of the charm and charisma of a FIRST Veteran, that's for sure. He was recruited to the team by his Calc teacher who knew of his excellent reputation in the Auto Club at school. Everybody knows that he's good with building and fixing and knows how to make things work. So it was natural for him to join the team and get right to work on this student built robot. He admits that it's not the best looking robot, but it meets specs and gets the job done.
Check out his interview to find out about the pressures of the build, the amazing team spirit and the pun (I mean fun) they had along the way. Speaking with Estavan and learning about his team was truly inspiring and is one of the things that makes us love what we do.
Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.
Daniele is a student at Florida Polytechnic University who is studying Computer Science with a concentration in Cyber Security. In High School, she was introduced to the science and technology world through the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), a robotics foundation where students of varying ages can compete through tasks that their robots perform. With help from mentors she met through FIRST, she became interested in programming and developing. Today, Daniele is a special events host for F5 Live: Refreshing Technology and PLuGHiTz Live Special Events and a co-host for both The New Product Launchpad and FIRST Looks.
Although Michele has worked in the banking industry full time for many years, she originally went to school with a concentration in communications, advertising and marketing. She began her career in sales and retail management, selling electronics and computers. Her love of all things tech eventually brought her back into the electronics arena three years ago when she started with PLuGHiTz Corporation to help with special events as a Production Assistant. Soon she began to dabble with the audio and video and is loving her role as Producer. She's also one of our content writers and assists with product reviews. Looking forward, she is excited to expand her skill set into editing and helping the company continue to grow.
