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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 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 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.
Frontend Web Developer
Software Developer
Software 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.
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.
Came here because I wanted to help develop a way to speed up robot programming without a hard robot.
Software Developer
Curriculum Developer
Curriculum 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.
I am a senior at Oswego East High School. I am a passionate and driven individual who utilizes innovation to create positive change and impact society. I have raised over $70,000 in grant funding to start and lead a school rocketry team, STEM club, debate and speech club, and to create a student makerspace with tools like 3D printers and laser cutters. Over 1000 students have already used my makerspace to bring their ideas to reality, and through my clubs, I have taught many students essential coding and engineering skills. Last year, I submitted a proposal and received $7,500 in funding from the Lemelson MIT Inventeam Program to create my invention concept of an algae-based biofiltration system to combat climate change. I led a team to construct a fully functional prototype and present our patented invention at MIT EurekaFest. I was also an intern at Fermi National Laboratory. I used Python and JavaScript coding to create a 3D web visualization of muon detector data to locate hidden chambers in the Chichen Itza Pyramid. I also researched the relationship between air quality and muon flux independently. I found a statistically significant correlation and became the first high school intern with published research in FermiLab Technical Publications. Also, I love cats and badminton!
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.
Unity Team Leader
Technical Advisor
Product Advisor
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.
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
VIRTUAL ROBOT SIMULATOR IS A SIMPLE, EASY-TO-USE PLATFORM THAT ALLOWS FTC TEAMS TO PROGRAM AND TEST THEIR ROBOTS WITHOUT ACCESS TO PHYSICAL HARDWARE.