First and Last Name Randy Steiner -------------------------------------------- How many years have you been a mentor for FIRST? This is my first year mentoring FRC -------------------------------------------- Tell us a little about your back ground (education, current job, ect...) I am currently a Senior Systems Architect with Bank of America. My responsibilities cover managing a team which designs large scale financial systems supporting our consumer banking business (checking, saving, credit card, online banking, mortgages and call centers). I am also involved in setting strategic direction for our technology platforms. I have been programming professionally for over 18 years, and have been a systems architect for over 7 years. I started programming when I was 12 years old and still enjoy it every day. -------------------------------------------- Why did you get involved as a FIRST mentor at MVHS? Helped lightly with FIRST Lego League and was looking forward to finding, or helping start a team when my oldest son was able to participate in the FRC challenge. When we found out MVHS had a team, we had to join up. -------------------------------------------- Tell us about some of your hobbies. Working with Computers, and Cars. My ultimate goal is to build/work with an open engine control system to replace the factory engine management system. I also enjoy model building, though I have limited time for that hobby at this time. I guess one could say the robot is just a really big model :-). -------------------------------------------- Share a story about your involvement as a mentor that you would like to share with others. I would say that seeing things click for the students as the understanding why basic principles are used to maintain and build software. When that happens, and then the next time the students can share it, it is really exciting to me. Seeing the creative energy the students have is a great thing. --------------------------------------------