Arshad Khan serves not only as 2876's Head Mentor, but also as a math teacher here at Burlington High School. When he's not busy posing for the camera or creating lesson plans for his motley calculus, geometry, and algebra classes, Arshad facilitates the club's business endeavors, creates regular meeting agendas, and assists the mechanical team with their daily tasks. Arshad also takes care of buying new parts and re-supplying our team's limited stocks whenever necessary. Zealous about Robotics and even more enthusiastic about instructing, Arshad taught an "Introduction to Robotics" course for the first time in 2015-16. This course, offered as an elective to all grades, serves to inspire the next generation of robot-enthusiasts.

Maciej Wiczynski has been our programming team's Head Mentor ever since 2876's first few days. With his extensive knowledge of Java and his years of experience working for Oracle, Mr. Wiczynski is undoubtedly an integral asset to our club. Passionate yet methodical, Mr. Wiczynski is usually the first to bring the entire club together to discuss specific details regarding prototyping, driving, and finally constructing our robot. Mr. Wiczynski cares deeply about the process taken to get to a final answer; getting the correct answer simply does not cut it for him. His unique style revolves around empowering his mentees: whenever they are presented with a formidable challenge (such as a bug in the code), he lets them experiment and attempt to solve the problem themselves before chiming in with one of his many helpful hints.

From running the scouting team to teaching team members how to code, Rick O'Donnell has many responsibilities. When teaching HTML to team members, Mr. O'Donnell leads them to reach their own conclusions, helping them in the long run. Mr. O'Donnell is adept at combining different ideas, leaving everyone happy. When he is not helping at Robotics, Mr. O'Donnell is working hard for Akamai. He enjoys spending time with family, playing board games, and volunteering at his church. Mr. O'Donnell is a big fan of the New York Yankees, the Dallas Cowboys, and the Syracuse Orangemen.

Eleanor O'Neill is a retired software engineer (CyberGrants). She has been mentoring the DevilBotz since 2013. She previously mentored with BERT 133 in Maine from 2007-2011. Eleanor particularly likes the competition because "it's a team sport, but for nerds like me." Ms O'Neill has a varied background including Editorial Assistant; Graphic Design and Prepress; teaching graphic software to designers and art students; administering computer networks; and then transitioned into a web-based (SASS) software career using a variety of languages: perl, PHP, Java, Python, React and more; as well as an affinity for databases. She also has a passion for space exploration and cookie baking.

Dean Casciola helps work with the electrical team to wire the robots, install sensors, and teach the programming team how to use the sensors properly. Outside of Robotics, Mr. Casciola is retired from Delta Electronics Manufucturing Corp as an Electrical Engineer. He has a pilot license and in his spare time flies airplanes, including one he built from a kit, and another in progress in his garage. He joined Robotics because his son got him involved in the club and he developed an interest as an electrical mentor. He is married to Ms. O'Neill.

Chris Morse joined the team when his son expressed interest. He has been a robotics engineer for over two decades and helps with electrical and mechanical subsystems. Mr. Morse consults and maintains his own machining, woodworking, and welding workshops. When not in the shop, He skis and climbs rocks.

Margarita Prajapati is a mother of three and a small business owner. She got her start in 2021 when her eldest son joined the club during his freshman year of high school. She works with club members interested in fundraising, applying for grants, securing sponsors, community engagement, creating team building activities, and all other "support" activities before, during, and after FIRST Robotics competitions. She hopes to promote, create awareness of, and encourage more STEM programs in the Burlington Community.

Nilesh Agarwalla has been an embedded software engineer at Broadcom's Broadband Video Group for 16+ years. He started mentoring in Oct 2021 and hopes his cross-discipline experience in hardware, firmware, and software will benefit the team. His experience with robotics started in college when his team built a "heat seeking robotic killer ant" which included mechanicals, a custom circuit board, IR sensors, and custom firmware. He was also instrumental in the hardware design for MIT's 2000 6.270 Autonomous Robot Design Competition's robot kit (BotKit). Mr. Agarwalla shares the mentoring team's philosophy of focusing on "the process" and making sure the students do not settle for just the "what," but also understand the "how" and the "why."

Sandhiya Krishnan is currently working as an Agile Practitioner at Sanofi Genzyme Pharmaceuticals. She has 20+ years experience in the software industry working in various roles and 10+ years as an Agile Practitioner. She loves to work with organizations to change their working culture and mindset. She is a public speaking enthusiast and mentor to a youth group. She works with the DevilBotz team to teach them to work efficiently by visualizing travel around the world.

Barbara Santiano has degrees in Marketing, Quality, and Law, and currently works in Supplier Quality for Raytheon, one of our corporate sponsors. Barbara has worked in many industries including non-profits, computer storage, and battery storage systems. Barbara joined the business team to share her business expertise and assist in fundraising and obtaining corporate sponsorships. Barbara started in 2024 during her son's second year on the CAD team.

Dan Castellarin is an alumni mentor for the software team, having graduated from Burlington High in 2019. He then attended Rochester Institute of Technology and received both his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Computer Science in Spring 2024. Having returned to Massachusetts, he currently performs autonomous systems research at MIT Lincoln Laboratory and seeks to give back to his old team in hopes of obtaining a blue banner!

Eric Wojtaszek is a strong mentor for the software team, but not only is he a whiz in this department he also works with project management and is willing to help all who may be in need. He joined the DevilBotz in the fall of 2023 when Neil recruited him. Before his time as a robotics mentor, Mr. Wojtaszek worked hard at Raytheon for 27 years. In his free time, he is a family guy who also enjoys staying active. To keep his activity up, Eric partakes in some pleasurable outdoorsy adventures, such as skiing, cycling, and sailing!