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»Rob Mainieri (2006)
| Rob Mainieri |
Name: Rob MainieriWFA Year: 2006 Years involved w/FIRST: 9 FIRST Team(s): Gila Monsters (0064), Honeywell International/Vitron Manufacturing/C &, H Refrigeration/Kathy's Music &, Cactus High School (Honeywell International/Vitron Manufacturing/C &, H Refrigeration/Kathy's Music &, Cactus High School), The University of California at San Diego/Calit2/Fish &, Richardson/General Motors/The UCSD Machine Perception Laboratory/Qualcomm/The Annenberg Foundation/San Diego Gas and Electric/Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center, San Diego/Northrop Grumman/GeoCon /The San Diego County Fair &, The Preuss School at UCSD (The University of California at San Diego/Calit2/Fish &, Richardson/General Motors/The UCSD Machine Perception Laboratory/Qualcomm/The Annenberg Foundation/San Diego Gas and Electric/Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center, San Diego/Northrop Grumman/GeoCon /The San Diego County Fair &, The Preuss School at UCSD) Role: Team Coordinator, Senior Mentor Quote: "You can't shake hands with a closed fist." - Gandhi Bio: Rob Mainieri is the recepient of the 2006 Woodie Flowers Award. A math teacher from Arizona, Rob also works as a Senior Mentor and serves in a number of roles. "Team coordinator would be the best description of what I do on my team. I’m the guy that makes sure that everyone else has what they need to be effective—whether it’s having enough mentors in different disciplines, having enough money and resources, getting training for the kids, etc. I coordinate all of our public engagements, as well. I also serve as the Chairperson of the Team San Diego Robotics Coalition and as FIRST Senior Mentor for Southern California (along with Nancy McIntyre). In these positions, I largely do for the region what I do for my own team. I try and make sure that all teams have enough resources and I also act as a liaison between teams to share resources. As a Coalition, we run many different events throughout the year. These include such events as: a Principal’s Forum to recruit schools, a post-season scrimmage, a pre-ship scrimmage, and a scrimmage at the San Diego County Fair. I’m also currently serving as the Organizing Committee Chairperson for the 2007 San Diego Regional." Rob also had a few words for us on what it was like to receive his WFA. "I have a lot of favorite FIRST memories and they’re all favorites for different reasons. This season was obvious a special one for me—with receiving “The Woody” as my students like to call it. Receiving that award was doubly special since it was several year’s worth of students that wrote the submission and not me or one or two students. My whole team had a hand in writing it. To hear from them, in their own words, how I have impacted their lives in an experience every teacher loves to have, but far fewer get to! My favorite robot moment has to go to this year, too, though—barely beating out my third year with team 64 (the now defunct Gila Monsters). This year’s robot improved from finishing second to last in our division at Championships last year to eighteenth in our division this year. After all was said and done, we finished as third alternate to get into the finals. The looks on both my students and engineering mentors’ faces during the whole experience will stay with me forever. It was confirmation for both myself and them that hard work and persistence truly does pay off in the end." Rob works hard in his roles in FIRST to ensure the success of others. Along the past 9 years, he's acquired a few accomplishments under his belt, too. "Here’s a partial list (I can’t remember for sure what awards we won with the Gila Monsters!) Team 498 SoCal Rookie All Star, 2001. Team 812: SoCal Rookie All Star, 2002; AZ Judges Award, 2003; SoCal Team Spirit Award, 2003; SoCal Woodie Flowers Award, 2004; SoCal and Championship Engineering Inspiration Award, 2004; SoCal Chairman’s Award, 2005, SoCal Chairman’s Award 2006, Championship Woodie Flowers Award, 2006. I have also founded the not for profit Team San Diego Robotics Coalition and currently serve as it’s Chairperson. This group’s goal is to support FIRST Robotics in Southern California in terms of team recruitment and support." Rob summed it up well when he characterized FIRST as "a unique varsity sport of the mind designed to help young people discover how interesting and rewarding the life of engineers and researchers can be." He finished up our interview with a bit of advice. "Surround yourself with great people—these include teachers, mentors, parents and students. I have and it’s made all of the difference! Not only will this made the hard times easier, but it makes the great times even better. I always find myself being pushed to be greater and more than I already am by both my own team and the other teams in Southern California that I work with." A hearty congratulations goes to Rob Mainieri for winning the 2006 Woodie Flowers Award. |
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