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Volunteers are the at the heart of every FIRST team. Parents, teachers, engineers, and mentors all work together, donating their time and knowledge to teach FIRST Robotics students the skills they need to succeed. Without these volunteers, FIRST would not be possible. The Cat Attack proudly recognizes their team volunteers for all of their hard work.

Founding Advisors


Andrew RothName: Andrew Roth
Years in Group: 12
Works in: Any

Mr. Roth was pleasantly surprised one fall day when group of motivated high school kids (NVHS class of 1999) approached him about being a faculty advisor for a new robot club. We could NEVER have built MoBot, PaBot, Snarf, Project Mayhem, PhilBot, CrazyEye, DarkSide, PiR8, or CATastrophe without him! For the last 4 years he brings his reinforcements: Jack and Ben - they love to help with building the robot.

Dana Advisors


Tom O'NeilName: Tom O'Neil
Years in Group: 6
Works in: Controls, Mechanisms

Tom is a Program Manager with Dana Corporation in the Advance Engineering Group. He is in his sixth season with the team and has worked with the controls and mechanisms groups. He leads the team and advisor meetings although to say he is in charge would not be correct. Tom also handles the accounting for the team.

Anne MitzelName: Anne Mitzel
Years in Group: 8
Works in: controls, wiring, programming

This is Anne's eighth season with the team. Since electrical engineers are a rarity in the building, Anne was immediately drafted into the Controls group. As the Cat Attack's leader of controls for six years, she has worked closely with controls team students, inspiring them to find unique solutions to FIRST's challenging controls problems. Anne's favorite programs are the ones that make the robot chase the students around the building.

Jens SchnebeleName: Jens Schnebele
Years in Group: 5
Works in: mechanism, drive train, machine shop etc...

Jens works for DANA as application engineer. For the Cat Attack team he helps with the drive train and mechanism components on the robot. At competitions Jens often plays the role of unofficial mascot by juggling in the stands and dancing on the field when he's not busy supervising students in the pit.

Advisors


Bob SteinlineName: Bob Steinline
Years in Group: 2
Works in: Machine Shop

Bob is a Springfield High School Instructor. He teaches Engineering, Production Drawings I and II, Introduction to CAD I and II, Metals, and is looking to add a few other interesting offerings to the Technology Education department at Springfield. One of the reasons he got involved with the Cat Attack team was the hope of adding a robotics curriculum to the technology classes he offers at Springfield. Bob came to education after over twenty years in mechanical and metal working technology employment, and likes to work with students. He helped create the "Burnout Bot's" pickup truck body.

 Mydessa RoseName: Mydessa Rose
Years in Group: 5
Works in: Drivetrain, or whatever needed

Mydessa is a former Dana Employee that was dragged into helping her first season. She no longer works for Dana, but still enjoys working with the students and learning as much from them as they hopefully learn from her. She is the maker of the team hats and tails, which are proudly worn at the competitions. She is also the attendance tracker, fundraising collector, and document keeper.

Tom AllenName: Tom Allen
Years in Group: 5
Works in: Wiring, Field Elements, Pits

Mr. Allen is the Plant Engineer at Johns Manville. Tom decided to join the team during his Son's senior year after seeing the "Gracious Professionalism" at the FIRST National Championship in Atlanta. Jared is now in his third year at Purdue University. Tom brings experience in project management, trouble shooting, safety, and reliability. He has assisted controls and wiring, is now field elements advisor, and was the "pit boss" for CATastrophe, Apollo 451 and Kick Kat. The pit crew knows well that "nothing hits the floor"

Walt EstepName: Walt Estep
Years in Group: 4
Works in: Controls, Wiring

Walt has worked with the Dana team's control group for the last 3 years helping them get a "charge" out of wiring. He also coached a FLL team for 6 years, 4 of those at Timberstone Jr. High. He is extremely proud of all his FLL kids that remained a part of the FIRST team.

Chris WoodardName: Chris Woodard
Years in Group: 10
Works in: Field Elements, Media, Website

Chris has been involved with the Cat Attack since his junior year of high school. After spending two years on the team as a student, Chris returned to the team as a college student adviser, and is currently in his 7th season of advising the team after graduating from the University of Toledo in 2008. Throughout his years on the team, Chris has been involved with many aspects including drivetrain, mechanisms, field elements, website, media relations, and photographer.

Name: Nathan MalhotraNathan Malhotra
Years in Group: 4
Works in: Drivetrain


Nathan has been a part of the team for four years. His first season as a student was in 2007 when the team built PiR8. Nathan is currently a sophomore studying mechanical engineering at the University of Toledo. He's enjoying his 1st season as a FIRST advisor.

Parents


David KinselName: David Kinsel
Years in Group: 8
Works in: Mechanism, Controls, and Virtual Design

Mr. Kinsel is a professional engineer and has many years of product development and project management experience. He has helped the students refine their ideas by asking lots of questions and he likes to model the ideas in CAD before making any parts. Over the years has been a mentor on Mechanism, Controls, and Virtual Design groups.

Dennis BoyleName: Dennis Boyle
Years in Group: 4
Works in: Drivetrain

Dennis Boyle has been with the Cat Attack Team 451 for two years. He became interested in the team through his son Kenny, a member. Previously they had both been involved with the First Lego League robotics. The last four years he has helped as a parent advisor on the drive train portion of the team.

Vicki HaidetName: Vicki Haidet
Years in Group: 2
Works in: Animation, Gracious Professionalism Awards

Vicki Haidet became involved with the Cat Attack Team 451 this past year in support of her son Brian's participation. She's now looking forward to participating in the 2011 FRC Build Season as an advisor. Vicki is a marketing research consultant with a degree in Computer Science.

Jeff HaidetName: Jeff Haidet
Years in Group: 2
Works in: Project Management

Jeff became interested in FIRST Robotics through his son Brian who is a 3rd year team member. After attending the Cleveland regional in 2009, he was totally impressed with the FIRST program and was eager to get involved. He recently retired after 35 years in the IT field, but still does some part-time consulting. Areas of experience include team and project management, programming and shop floor integration.

Wayne SmithName: Wayne Smith
Years in Group: 2
Works in: Field Elements

Wayne Smith has joined the team after watching his two sons, Shane and Casey, have fun with the robots for several years. He has 30 year of experience as a carpenter, and plans on helping field elements build elements.

Dana© The Cat Attack 2011
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