Michael Vawter (aka “The Robot Guy”) won 1st place out of 10,000 teams from 39 countries at the FIRST LEGO League robotics competition two years in a row, was inducted into the National Gallery for Young Inventors, and has published peer-reviewed vision science.

Michael’s passion for LEGO robotics began at the age of 9 when he got his first LEGO MINDSTORMS set. He built a robot that turned off his bedroom lights automatically, which saved him from getting in trouble for leaving them on. As a middle schooler, Michael was lead programmer, builder, tester, and handler for the MindStorm Troopers FIRST LEGO League (FLL) team. They competed for four years, becoming the first (and only?) team to win 1st place Robot Performance at the FLL World Festival two years in a row. Michael later co-founded the Robot Academy and has taught thousands of students how to master LEGO robotics. He’s been featured in Popular Science Magazine, and was on TV with Bill Nye the Science Guy.

Michael graduated from Denison University in 2011 and went on to earn a master’s degree in entrepreneurship and innovation from Seton Hill. He has continued to contribute to the FLL community by serving as a judge and referee at the state and world level. He has also coached and mentored teams of his own (some of whom have won international titles of their own). In his ongoing career as a robotics teacher, Michael helps students and teachers to analyze and solve technological problems more creatively by integrating their right-brain and left-brain capacities.

Nick is an electrical engineer who loves LEGO and has a background in marine robotics. He’s worked with remote operated vehicles that explore shipwrecks and other underwater seascapes. Originally from Massachusetts, he studied at UMass Amherst and now lives in Seattle with his girlfriend Emilia and their cat Norbert. Nick loves helping students to explore robotics and have fun with STEM.

Lea is a Mechanical Engineering major and Graphic Design minor at Michigan State University who loves combining creative problem solving and technical know-how. She has a passion for teaching kids about STEM, and throughout college has volunteered with MSU Science Theatre, traveling across Michigan to do science shows for kids. She has also lead Lego robotics and video game coding summer camps for children aged 8 – 11. In her free time, she likes to draw, sew, and play guitar.

Melissa is a candy-bar powered student at Utah State University dual majoring in Marketing and Computer Science. She has a passion for STEM education and has worked with inventions, maker clubs, electronics, and junk drawer robotics. She mentored the Utah BAPC First Lego League team and has been the recipient of several technical awards including national NCWIT and IJSHS. When not experimenting with robots, she spends her time Irish dancing, baking, and rock climbing.

Matthew is an Electrical Engineering and Product Design student at Lehigh University. Matthew has been building robots since his sophomore year in high school, when he founded his school’s robotics club and VEX robotics team. Since then, Matthew has developed the “Robotics Crash Course,” a two-week middle school science curriculum about building Arduino robots from scratch. Matthew was also the chair of the STEAM department at the Academy of Creative Education in 2018, and worked as a Product Engineering Co-Op at Crayola in Fall 2019, designing custom 3D models to assist with testing and the product development process. His upcoming book Arduino for Artists explores using programming and electronics to facilitate artistic expression. Matthew is passionate about STEAM and design, and is excited to help students learn to make anything they can dream of!

Sriram is a Computer Science major at the University of Connecticut and has been a Lead Instructor at both Kumon and CodeNinjas, teaching kids ages 6-16. Sriram has lead summer camps for students in both video game design as well as drone programming and he has a passion for legos and computer science. He has been building with Lego Robots for the past 7 years and has brought various Lego Robots to his high school invention showcase and has won awards for his creations. He has created apps as well as AWS websites and is an experienced programmer in languages such as Python, Java, and C. In his spare time, Sriram loves to play the drum set and learn new programming languages. Sriram loves to work with kids and is excited to help instill a life long passion for STEM!