Jonathan Weiland
Executive Sponsor
Jonathan Weiland is the currently the director (or Program delivery partner PDP) of the FIRST Tech Challenge in Illinois . He has been involved in FIRST Tech Challenge for 12 years. He has served as a mentor for many FTC teams over the years and has been the director of the FIRST Tech Challenge in Illinois for the last 10 years. His teams have won the 8 Illinois State FTC championships. In 2018 his team Vertigo won the Illinois Inspire award and the Motivate award at the World Championships.
Mihir Chauhan
Lead Software Developer
Mihir is a high school freshman who is proud to be a software developer in the Virtual Robot Simulator Project. With over 4 years of experience in programming languages including C#, Dart, Java, JavaScript, Swift, and Python, he has created and published many mobile applications on both Android and iOS – many of which are being used by thousands worldwide! By developing both the VRC Android Apps and working on the simulation, he has further developed his skills in Android development and learned how to power the simulator using the Unity Engine..
Gavin Hughes
Senior Software Developer
Gavin is a sophomore at the University of Texas at Austin majoring in Mechanical Engineering and minoring in Computer Science. In his free time, he enjoys doing game development and video production always looking to enhance his abilities in some way or another. Gavin has participated in FLL and FTC for 2 years each winning the District Control Award 2 years in a row. He has also founded a club while in high school called Mentor Club that has high school students mentoring young kids about their interests and talents. Gavin while in this club taught programming, robotics, and other STEM related subjects. Outside of the work of it all, Gavin enjoys listening to music, petting his cat, and watching YouTube videos.
Siddarth Calidas
Frontend Web Developer
Siddarth is a freshman at Purdue University who does frontend web development for VRS. He started an FTC team with his dad in 2020, recruiting his friends and learning about FTC robotics with them. He was the lead software developer and captain of FTC Team 18568 from then till his graduation. He has two years of experience with frontend web development, and has experience with many other types of software development. He is also proficient with Blender. He joined VRS in October 2021, when they were recruiting FTC members to overhaul the old website. Since then, he has also done one-off projects for VRS, such as robot decimation and scouting projects.
Nishant Vikramaditya
Software Developer
Nishant Vikramaditya is a junior at Interlake High School. He has experience with frontend web development like Svelte, React, and TypeScript, backend web development with Go, Rust, Pyhon, and Java, embedded programming with C and C++, and is lead programmer at team 21229 Quality Control, winning Innovate Award at worlds. He has experience with CAD, CFD, sensor fusion, simulation development, and control system development. Outside of robotics, he also enjoys competitive rocketry and racing cross country.
Joshua Chen
Software Developer
Joshua is a senior at Barrington High School Illinois. He has been in FTC for 2 seasons and is the team captain of 18255 Stealth Robotics. He has written desktop programs and web applications in multiple programming languages. Joshua works to create robot CAD models and testing for VRS. Joshua is excited at the opportunity to expand his skill set and help bring robotics to a wider audience.
Jensen Coonradt
Curriculum Developer
I am a passionate and I have taught many students essential coding and engineering skills using the VRS . I created and wrote Functional FTC Java for the VRS Curriculum https://bit.ly/Vrs-Java-Lessons Also, I love cats and badminton!
Letian Li
Software Developer
Came here because I wanted to help develop a way to speed up robot programming without a hard robot.
Eric Zhang
Lead Technical Publications
Eric is a senior at Eastlake High School. Eric has six years of FTC experience, winning many awards at world and state level. He is proficient in Python, Java, JavaScript, and Gitbook and has experience in areas such as machine learning, web development. He has conducted numerous workshops on programming, robotics, and CAD for hundreds of students. In his personal life, Eric enjoys outdoor activities such as fishing and hiking.
Parth Goyal
Curriculum Developer
Parth is a high school freshman from Orlando, Florida. He has been in FTC for two years, and is a programmer on FTC Team 7477 Super 7. He has experience in multiple programming languages. He joined the VRS team in April 2022. He has helped with testing and writing different samples for the VRS, and web development. He hopes to do good and make it worlds this upcoming season with his FTC team.
Leonidas Varveropoulos
Unity Team Leader
Leonidas is a high school junior involved in many activities outside school, including the Virtual Robot Simulator Project, where he creates the robot Unity simulation using C#. He has been part of his high school FRC robotics team for three years and is currently VP of Scouting of Cryptonite Team 624. During his time on the team he introduced ROS, a robot programming operating system, which he then used with Unity to build a simulator. After much modification this team project then turned into the Virtual FTC Simulator used today! When he isn’t developing the Unity robot simulator he is programming robots using ROS, participating in the NASA scholars program, and engaging in a wide variety of other hobbies, such as playing guitar.
Sundeep Chauhan
Technical Advisor
Sundeep has been involved with FIRST for the past 6 years and is the head coach of Innov8rz, a NorCal FTC team. He has an Electrical Engineering background with experience ranging from nano-scale transducers to high-speed electronics. Having architected large scale systems, he has authored over 12 patents and numerous trade secrets. FTC has given him a platform for mentoring and bringing the best of out the next generation and is here to bring in all the help needed to make this project successful.
Brad Kramer
Product Advisor
Brad has been involved with FIRST for the past 5 years, volunteering and providing support for FTC programs in Illinois. He has over 20 years of consulting experience leading programs and projects for FORTUNE 1000 companies and recently was managing a project management practice area in Chicago. FTC has helped to provide a way for him to contribute to the next generation of students working to excel in engineering and robotics, including providing insight for students on how to successfully work with others as part of a project team
Vidyoot Senthilvenkatesh
Software Developer
Vidyoot Senthilvenkatesh is a senior at the Illinois Math and Science Academy interested in pursuing Computer Science in college. With experience in C#, Python, Java, and JS he enjoys creating random websites and apps. He also loves exploring fields of web development, game development, and machine learning. Outside of coding, he enjoys hosting programming and CAD workshops for students, preparing for public forum debate, or working out. He met Jonathan Weiland in sophomore year at the FTC Illinois Regional Conference. Later, starting junior year, he also joined the FRC Team at his school. He looks forward to working with others to continue scaling this project.