We are all students at Worcester Polytechnic Institute joined together for a common mission. We are competing in the IGVC competition and we are eager to win.Our team consists of several students of different majors advised by professors Taskin Padir, Mike Ciaraldi, Stephen Nestinger, Ken Stafford, and Bill Michalson. Below you will find more description of each of us.

Adam Panzica

Adam Panzica is a Senior year student working towards his BS in Mechanical Engineering and Robotics Engineering. Adam has had a love of robotics ever since he was young. At the tender age of three he began his first foray into the field with his Lego’s. As the years progressed, the robots got more advanced, moving from things that simply looked like robots, to remote controlled toys. The release of the original Lego MindStorms kit marked his first real adventure into the world of autonomous robots. At WPI, he was incredibly excited when they unveiled the robotics engineering major during his sophomore year, and jumped at the opportunity to add it to his mechanical engineering degree. Last year he was a member of WPI’s Formula-SAE team, and hopes to bring his experiences with working on a product to a competition specification and deadline from that project to the IGVC team this year. He will be primarily focusing on chassis design and control systems development.

Bohua (Jack) Wang

Jack is currently a senior year undergraduate student with a major in Mechanical Engineering focusing on mechanical design. He has been interested in all kinds of machines and mechanisms since he is very young. During the years in WPI, he developed interests in machine design and later robotics. He plans to go to graduate school to study further on mechanical design and control aspect of robots. He joined the team Prometheus mainly working on the chassis and overall system integration.  He liked the challenge of combining mechanical, electrical and computer systems and developing them into one intelligent machine.

Dan Sacco

Dan Sacco is a senior year student working towards his Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering. Dan came to realize his love for engineering in high school when he participated in the FIRST robotics program at his high school. Ever since, Dan has been tinkering with electronics and electrical circuits. Dan’s interest in robotics led him to the intelligent ground vehicle project. Dan is using his knowledge to contribute to the power, control, and sensor systems on the vehicle.

Justin Barrett

Justin is currently a senior at WPI in the Robotics Engineering program with specific interests in control theory and digital logic design. He lives in Chelmsford, Massachusetts and graduated from Chelmsford High School in 2006. After graduation, he hopes to continue his studies at WPI in the five year Bachelors/Masters Robotics Engineering graduate program. Eventually he hopes to work in industry developing consumer robots for homes and businesses.

Rob Fitzpatrick

Rob Fitzpatrick is a senior Mechanical Engineering major at WPI. Just last year, Rob decided to concentrate in Robotics because, ever since high school, he was always interested in using mechanical elements to create robots that can complete ordinary and extraordinary tasks. Rob had several options to choose from for his senior year project, but the intelligent ground vehicle project was, without a doubt, his top choice because it has not yet been done at WPI. Also, he chose this project because it was something exciting, presenting him with several learning oppurtunities in areas that he knew he would be useful in his career after WPI.

Viktoras Truchanovicius

I’m a senior at Worcester Polytechnic Institute majoring in computer science. I joined this team because this project involves something I have never done before. Writing artificial intelligence for the robot and working in a team of 12 students of different majors is a great way to go beyond the one’s comfort zone. Most of my experience is in web development and software engineering. I was always looking for a challenge and I found it. I’m really excited about the competition and I hope that we will win (it’s all about the attitude). There is a great deal of pressure on our team since it’s our first time competing at IGVC but I’m sure our awesome team will be able to handle it.

Christopher Gamache

Hello, I am a senior at Worcester Polytechnic Institute working towards a BS in Robotics Engineering with a minor in Computer Science.  I am specifically interested in the programming intensive applications of robotics and have been since my introduction to robotics and programming two years ago.  Completing all my robotics electives in Computer Science I have striven to supplement my knowledge in robotics with a strong Computer Science background.  My interests have recently been focused around computer vision, specifically stereo vision.  The IGVC competition has offered a great opportunity to work on and develop a stereo vision system as well as apply applications of navigation and path finding.  Additionally the team also has the privilege of being the first team from WPI to enter and win this competition.

Benjamin Roy

Ben is a senior electrical and computer engineering major. Throughout high school he competed on his high schools robotics team and fell in love with robotics. Through his four years on of high school he learned his way around the machine shop as well as how to model just about anything in CAD. Through his work experience in industrial automation he has become very interested in machine vision and control. He joined this project because it will give him the chance to work in a large team that will be working on the design of a machine needing controls and a heavy reliance on machine vision.

Professor Taskin Padir

Our advisor, Professor Padir, is a faculty member in the Robotics Engineering Program at WPI. He has been working on robots and control systems for more than 15 years. He holds a Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from Purdue University. And, he is constantly looking over our shoulders to make sure we are on track.

Professor Mike Ciaraldi

Co-advisor Mike Ciaraldi has been Professor of Practice in the Dep’t of Computer Science at WPI since 1999. His first experience with robots was trying to build one with his Erector Set in seventh grade; it did not work especially well. Since then he has worked in both industry and academia, in areas of process control, telecommunications, retailing, and finance. As one of the original WPI faculty who created the Robotics Engineering program, he is tremendously excited to be working in this first-in-the-nation program. He was also a member of the team which created Moonraker, which won the $500,000 first prize in the 2009 NASA Regolith Excavation Challenge.

Ricardo Madera

I am a senior at Worcester Polytechnic Institute majoring in Computer Science. Since the day I acquired my first computer, I was so intrigued that I had to understand how it worked. After coming to WPI, I learned so much that i decided it was time to start creating my own intergrated systems. I joined this project because i felt it would be a great opportunity to explore other areas of Computer Science such as artifitial intelligence, graphics acceleration and vision detection.

Wayne Anderson

Wayne Anderson is a graduating senior at WPI, majoring in Management Engineering with a concentration in Robotics. Wayne received a diploma in 1985 from Blackstone Valley Tech in Upton, MA with a concentration in electronics. He served eight years in the United States Navy as an Aviation Electronics Technician during Desert Shield/ Storm, twelve years in the healthcare industry as a data-miner/ analyst/ programmer, and earned an Associate’s Degree in Engineering from Quinsigamond Community College in Worcester, MA. He owns a small sign and graphics business in Leicester, MA. Additionally, Wayne spends much of his free time volunteering services as an amateur radio operator for the Worcester Emergency Communications Team (WECT),  a task force leader for the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation, and as an officer for the Massachusetts Freemasons.  As one of two management students on the IGVC MQP team, Wayne is analyzing the engineering decision making process for bringing a product from concept to commercialization. The main premise is to determine if alternate decisions can be made at the beginning of a design process that would lower overall costs, improve innovation, or design/quality of the final product.