Mentors
Joel Darnauer
Joel is a lead on the Growth Engineering team at Google. He has 30 years of experience spanning electrical engineering, software and technical management and can advise students on technical aspects, in competition, and in managing the business.
Joel serves as the Secretary and Treasurer for our non-profit, the Fremont Institute of Robotics Education, and maintains the garage shop on Santa Monica Ave.
Shashin Mangrolia
Shashin Mangrolia is a Hands-on Engineering Manager at Google leading real time distributed systems, software applications with passion for quality. He has 10+ years of diverse experience in software along with significant experience in hardware engineering. He can advise students on technical engineering, programming, and oversight in competition.
Shashin is the President for our non-profit, the Fremont Institute of Robotics Education.
Yi He
Yi is a seasoned data scientist and quant in the Fintech space. She works at Stripe where she builds machine learning models for fraud detection. She holds a Ph.D. In Operations Research from Georgia Institute of Technology and a M.S. in Engineering Mechanics from Pennsylvania State University. Yi can advise students on the technical aspects, in competition, and in business management.
Yi serves as the Vice President for our non-profit, the Fremont Institute of Robotics Education.
Hemanga Das
Hemanga is a Software Engineer at Meta. He has 25+ years of hands on and leadership experience at a number of valley startups as wells as large companies like Sun MicroSystems, Oracle and Meta. He can advise students on technical aspects, programming, competition season, and in business management.
Hemanga will serve as a mentor/supervisor for our non-profit.
Captains
Krish Mangrolia: I’m a captain and founder of Team 9470 (Team Ctrl-Alt-Defeat). Tycho and I founded this team in Spring 2023, but before that, I had no prior experience in robotics. One thing I want to teach people from our club is that it’s never too late to start something new, as I’ve learned myself from robotics.
Tycho Young: As someone who’s always had a contagious passion for building contraptions and leading a team, robotics was the perfect opportunity to combine both of these interests into one. Through the rigor of science, the excitement of competition, and the intricacies of a business, FRC enables students to spread their love for engineering and other hands-on sciences. I’m driven to empower my teammates to take their STEM, business, and teamwork skills to the next level, enabling them to excel in any situation they may be in.
Leads
Bowen Long (Design): I am the design lead for Team 9470 and I joined during the summer when Tycho informed me that he was starting a robotics club. Although I lacked any prior experience, I was eager to jump in along with many other members. I hope to learn more about how robots function and CAD. As lead, I aim to help my teammates prosper in CAD and learn to be productive.
Mihir Das (Electrical): I am the electrical lead for Team 9470 and I joined in the summer after Tycho informed me he needed dedicated members to help build a robot and lead divisions during the academic year. Even though my prior experience was limited, I joined along with a few other friends and tried it out. I decided to join electrical because of my love for electrical after the electrical unit in physics, taught by one of our team’s former mentors.
Members
Aadit Bansal
Aaron Ely
Aditya Kharkar
Arin Kasliwal
Ayan Rajagopalan
Bowen Long
Diva Shah
Ean Wun
Ethan Cui
Gabriel Gnanamani
Ishaan Dutta
Ishitha Uppalapati
Jasnoor Singh
Jason Lee
Jessie Luo
Katherine Sun
Krish Mangrolia
Mihir Das
Milton Tran
Neel Sharma
Neev Jain
Patrick Zhou
Pranesh Saran
Rakhi Pamula
Rusheel Karnataki
Ryan Yan
Samahith Thellakal
Samik Chaudhari
Samuel Yang
Sean Ma
Sunny Fang
Tycho Young
Vincent Lu
Weibo Zhou
Zander Chen
Zion Young