Alumni

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Universities

Many alumni have been accepted to and attended prestigious and internationally-ranked universities including Harvard, University of Pennsylvania, Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, New York University, Boston University, University of Pittsburgh, Penn State's Schreyer Honors College, Rochester Institute of Technology, University of Arizona Honors College, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Drexel, Northeastern, Lehigh University and The United States Coast Guard Academy.

Majors

Throughout the team's nine year history, every graduate of Downingtown Area Robotics has gone on to college, and most have majored in a STEM (science, technology, engineering, or mathematics) or business subject. Specific majors and minors include mechanical, aerospace, marine, civil, material, chemical, computer, electrical, and biomedical engineering, mechanical engineering technology, naval architecture, engineering science, applied mechanics, computer science, chemistry, environmental biology, actuarial science, mathematics, statistics, economics, supply chain management/logistics, physics, and military science.

Scholarships

Graduates have been awarded FIRST Robotics scholarships, which high school juniors and seniors can apply for. They have also received many other scholarships and grants, including several full scholarships to distinguished universities.

STEM/Robotics Participation

Many graduates have held STEM jobs at local businesses and/or participated in STEM research, including robotics-related studies. In addition, some alumni have returned as mentors to Downingtown Area Robotics and others participate on robotics or FIRST teams, including Team 2152 and Penn State's AUVSI IGVC Team.

Alumni

Names in alphabetical order by high school graduation year.

2005

  • Bill Best
  • Minh Tran is a 2009 Villanova computer science graduate.
  • Brandon Zehner

2006

  • James Coll went to Penn State (University Park).
  • Ethan Goldblum went to Carnegie Mellon.
  • Jake Marsh is a US Air Force officer currently training to become a pilot. He graduated from Penn State (University Park) with a BS in aerospace engineering.
  • Steven Owens (Captain 2006) is currently a chemistry graduate student at the University of Pittsburgh. He is a 2009 graduate of Penn State, where he earned his BS on chemistry scholarship.
  • Kathryn Shannon

2007

  • Josh Anders is attending Embry-Riddle with a 15% scholarship and finishing the last year of his 5-year aerospace engineering BS/MS program. He has already earned a BS in aerospace engineering with a minor in mathematics.
  • Paul Andrejko graduated from Penn State's Schreyer Honors College (University Park) with a bachelors in actuarial science.
  • Ian Barr is attending Rider University's Westminster Choir College for music theory and composition.
  • Ryan Christen
  • Cassie Jurgens (Co-Captain 2007) graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a BS in civil engineering and architecture.
  • Vicky Lai graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a technical degree.
  • Ben McElroy (Co-Captain 2007) is an officer in the United States Coast Guard after graduating from the US Coast Guard Academy. He credits his acceptance to the Academy in part to his participation in FIRST Robotics. After discovering Ben participated in FIRST, the admissions officers of USCGA moved him from 100th on the waiting list to first. He graduated with a BS in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering.
  • David Pravensky
  • Jeremy Schieferstein is earning his PhD in chemical engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He earned his chemical engineering BS and materials science & engineering minor from Lehigh University.
  • Eddy Scrivens II
  • Kevin Short is at the East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania majoring in media communications after graduating from Delaware County Community College for Interactive Multimedia.
  • Shawn Trainer
  • Victoria Tran graduated from Villanova.
  • Don Webb is attending the University of Pittsburgh.
  • Kyle West is attending Georgia Tech.

2008

  • John Carpenter is attending the University of Pittsburgh and majoring in electrical engineering.
  • Dan Coll is attending Cornell.
  • Jason Downey is attending Penn State.
  • Amber McKown (Animation Lead 2007-2008) attended Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute on a leadership scholarship graduating with degrees in computer science and biomedical engineering. She is now employed at Unisys in Malvern.
  • Michael Posner (Co-Captain 2008) is attending the University of Pennsylvania and majoring in mechanical engineering and applied mechanics and studying computer and information science.
  • John Stumpo is attending DCCC.
  • Matt Witmer is attending Cabrini College.

2009

  • Alex Clark is attending Villanova University with a Commuter's Scholarship and majoring in chemical engineering. He is a freak of nature. He has arms that extend 90' and in his final games playing Lunacy he was able to make a number of those Did YOU SEE THAT? shots at competition. He also has excellent music tastes, who would have thought that zydeco was the right music for the final crate night?
  • Evan Kroboth
  • Hans Hermans (VEX 1640 Team Leader 2009) is attending UIUC where he studies computer science.
  • Anna Hughes is attending Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute after transfering from Marlboro College for philosophy and astrophysics. She was a long term roboteer in the VEX organization. She did an outstanding job in her senior year by doing all the "event" planing which consisted of getting parents assigned, planning the food and beverage concession and getting all of the items delivered for the events we held. She is one of the reasons the 2009 Eastern Pennsylvania Regional was such a success.
  • Siri Maley (Captain 2008 and 2009) is attending Penn State's Schreyer Honors College (University Park) with a Scholar's Scholarship and majoring in mechanical engineering with minors in engineering science and military science (AFROTC). She is the first 1640 alum to return as a regular mentor. (Stuff to be added here)
  • Zak McConnell is attending Carnegie Mellon and majoring in physics. (Stuff to be added here)
  • Heather McKown (Co-Captain 2009) is attending Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with a Medalist's Scholarship and majoring in mechanical engineering. She is one of the diminishing group of small fingered orphans (SFO). The small fingered orphans are roboteers that have the ability to stick their hands into poorly designed, awkward spaces and actually make mechanical changes. This saved us hours of disassembly time and was a factor in design "awww just get a SFO" to fix poor design plans. She is also a Class A Machinist; she can fab parts with the best of them. Finally, she's also an artist and designed the FRC team t-shirts starting with DEWBOT III.
  • Elizabeth Murphy is is attending Shippensburg University with the Clarence Schock Scholarship and majoring in environmental biology. Has skills in a number of areas. First, she is a Class A Machinist. The phrase "If Murph can't make it you don't want it" had two meanings. Either the part was so poorly defined that you were not going to be happy with the result. Second was the double bend into N space you had designed wasn't going to work in this universe. In most cases, she could produce parts off of drawings. On time, on spec, one pass! She is also an artist with paint and brush. She painted the DEWBOT V shipping crate, which won rave comments from other teams. The complicated "wireframe screwdriver" with sparks was hand drawn based on Heather McKown's design. The famous "Hope is not an Engineering Strategy" was replicated on the side of the crate.
  • James Yu is attending Drexel University with a full scholarship and is an undecided sciences major. Due to his schedule in high school, James was not there as much as the mentors' would have liked. When he was in the shop, work happened. A combination of mechanical skills and a high energy personality got James and other roboteers fired up to complete tasks.

2010

  • Brianna Edwards is studying advertising at Temple University.
  • Amanda Fallon is attending Embry-Riddle.
  • Paul Klufas is studying for duel degrees in Computer Engineering and Physics at Bucknell.
  • Cole Richter is attending Cornell University.
  • Jen Stanton is studying Game Design and Development at the Rochester Institute of Technology and assisting on FRC 1511 Rolling Thunder

2011

  • Drew Cherry is studying engineering at Penn State Main Campus.
  • Carly McKown is studying chemical engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and was awarded the Medalist's Scholarship.
  • Matt Klufas is studying agricultural engineering at Penn State Main Campus.
  • Ben Rajcan is studying computer science at Rochester Institute of Technology.

2012

  • Michael Brova is studying Material Engineering at Penn State Main
  • Andrew Weissmanis studying Engineering at Delaware Community College
  • Sasha Wall is studying kinesiology at the University of Western Ontario, Canada
  • Nicole Wall is studying biological sciences trending toward bio-chem at the University of Guelph on Canada

2013

  • Michael Morganto is studying electrical engineering at Northeastern University
  • Douglas Moyer is studying computer science at Rochester Institute of Technology.
  • Kenneth Au is studying computer science at Penn State Main
  • Jason McPeak is studying at University Of Maryland
  • Melanie Klufas is studying at Smeal College of Business Penn State Main
  • Garrison Manfield is studying Psychology at Delaware Community College
  • Vamshi Voruganti is studying Supply Chain Management/Logistics at Smeal College of Business at Penn State Main