Meet Our Team! – Mentors

Joel Yacono

Employer/Occupation: Baxter, Healthcare

Years involved in FIRST:22

Role/Area of expertise of the team: Build

Reason for getting involved: Watching the student develop and become more confident in what they do over the years.

Favorite Part About Robotics: From the kickoff to the concept development.

If You Were a Wrestler What Would Your Entrance Song Be: Gonna Fly Now – Bill Conti

Alexander Kapaan

Employer/Occupation: Kee Safety Inc.- CAD Designer

Years involved in FIRST: 16

Role/Area of expertise of the team: CAD

Reason for getting involved: I rejoined The Warlocks as a mentor to try and give back everything the program had given to me when I was in high school. It was because of FIRST that I went on to become a CAD Designer thanks to everything I was taught from the Mentors and even other students. The Warlocks have always lacked a dedicated CAD mentor, so I consider it an honor to have been welcomed back to help a new generation the same way I was assisted all those years ago.

Favorite Part About Robotics: Watching the students grow and learn over the years they’re on the team. From coming in with little to no experience for the sub-team they join and the field of work they’ll be doing to becoming masters of the subjects. Seeing first hand their emotional growth, the new friends they make, the experiences they have. It’s amazing seeing it all happen in real time.

If You Were a Wrestler What Would Your Entrance Song Be: BFG Division – Mick Gordon

Steve Barnes

Employer/Occupation: Retired

Years involved in FIRST: 17

Role/Area of expertise of the team: Build

Reason for getting involved: Mr. Yacono complained about transmissions being wrong and I came to help, and I kept helping.

Favorite Part About Robotics: I enjoy being able to spend time working with bright and motivated students and mentors accomplishing something incredible together year after year.

If You Were a Wrestler What Would Your Entrance Song Be: Beautiful Drugs – Zac Brown

Sue Vasko

Employer/Occupation: Mahle Engineer

Years involved in FIRST: 18

Role/Area of expertise of the team: Build

Reason for getting involved: I was somewhat familiar with FIRST from hearing about it from a few of my co-workers as my employer (then DELPHI) was one of the founding sponsors of FIRST and the primary sponsor for a few teams. I encouraged my oldest son, Ryan, to join the Lockport FIRST robotics team, which he did his sophomore year for the 2006 AIM HIGH season. I would stop in after work to see what they were up to and found they could use additional engineering mentoring support so I pulled in my husband, Bob, to help out the team. Then our youngest son, Eric, joined the team 2 years later as a freshman, and he graduated in 2011- and Bob and I have not! Hardest fun ever!

Favorite Part About Robotics: Working with a wonderful team of mentors and parents dedicated to helping and supporting enthusiastic students. I love witnessing the kids progress over their time on the team and become amazing young adults. I am always so proud of them!

If You Were a Wrestler What Would Your Entrance Song Be: Roar – Katy Perry

Jeffrey P. Rogowski

Employer/Occupation: Secondary Technology Educator

Years involved in FIRST: 24

Role/Area of expertise of the team: President

Reason for getting involved: Well I was part of the starting of the company 21 years ago, because we were introduced to the FIRST program and learned what it could do for our students here in Lockport! The main reason was to change the Technology program and create a program like no other and that was FIRST Robotics that was going to change the future of many students who pass through our program.

Favorite Part About Robotics: Watching young students grow in the field of engineering into adults and pursue higher education in this field and later come back to return the favor to younger students!

If You Were a Wrestler What Would Your Entrance Song Be: Thunderstruck – AC/DC

Tim Brounscheidel

Employer/Occupation: General Motors/Information Architect

Years involved in FIRST: 10

Role/Area of expertise of the team: Electrical/Programming

Reason for getting involved: Spending time with my kids

Favorite Part About Robotics: Watching kids realize potential

If You Were a Wrestler What Would Your Entrance Song Be: Don’t Worry Be Happy – Bobby McFerrin

Kris Sielski

Employer/Occupation: Engineer at Sensorcon/Molex

Years involved in FIRST: 11

Role/Area of expertise of the team: Electrical/Programming

Reason for getting involved: My kids made me join

Favorite memory about Robotics: Saturday Lunches

If You Were a Wrestler What Would Your Entrance Song Be: Kickstart My Heart – Motley Crue

Adam Stockton

Employer/Occupation: KeyBank / Software Developer

Years involved in FIRST: 16

Role/Area of expertise of the team: Imagery

Reason for getting involved: I originally joined the Warlocks as a student back in 2009. After graduating in 2012, I decided to come back as a technical mentor for both our Scouting and Website sub-teams. My experiences on the team helped lead me to a career in Software Development, and I wanted to help give new students the same experiences and opportunities that I had as a student

Favorite memory about Robotics: Being able to help give students the same experience that I had during the program, and see them graduate our team and head off into successful careers using the skills and knowledge they learned on our team.

If You Were a Wrestler What Would Your Entrance Song Be: Whatever the DJ picks

Noah Raymond

Employer/Occupation: North Park Junior High/ Secondary Technology Educator

Years involved in FIRST: 17

Role/Area of expertise of the team: Build

Reason for getting involved: After being an FLL and FTC coach for years I was asked to help mentor the team create a mini-bot for Logomotion. After that year I was sold and have been team mentor ever since.

Favorite memory about Robotics: My favorite robotic memory was getting redemption for canceling an FTC NY championship trip to Pace University due to an ice storm in 2014. This group of students never let me forget this and worked hard to win the Finger Lakes region FRC event in 2018. This win earned them a trip to the World Championships in Detroit.

Michael Root

Employer/Occupation: Welder – Root’s Quality Welding

Years involved in FIRST: 10

Role/Area of expertise of the team: Build

Reason for getting involved: I am an alum of the program and I like to build things

Favorite memory about Robotics: Crashing the robot at least once every year.

Mike Stutz

Years involved in FIRST: 13

Role/Area of expertise of the team: Build

Reason for getting involved: My son was on the team for 3 years.

Favorite memory about Robotics: Teaching the students how to make and modify parts using various hand tools and shop equipment .

If You Were a Wrestler What Would Your Entrance Song Be: Thunder Struck – AC/DC

Michael Lieber

Employer/Occupation: Lockport City School District

Years involved in FIRST: 17

Role/Area of expertise of the team: Programming/Imagery

Reason for getting involved: Seeing Students learn and teach from mentors and each other.

Favorite memory about Robotics: Seeing Students learn and teach from mentors and each other.

If You Were a Wrestler What Would Your Entrance Song Be: Thunderstruck – AC/DC

Katie Miner

Employer/Occupation: Student @ Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Years involved in FIRST: 10

Role/Area of expertise of the team: CAD

Reason for getting involved: I was always the ‘nerdy science girl’, and I knew I loved math – it just made sense. 1507 became my community in high school, and I hope it continues to be that way for other young women.

Favorite memory about Robotics: Helping our students. Robotics is a place for learning, and growing, and all we can do as mentors is help our students blossom in these ways.

If You Were a Wrestler What Would Your Entrance Song Be: Stronger – Kelly Clarkson – it’s all about building yourself back up 🙂