Currently, Exothermic Robotics does not have any official advisors or coaches. However, when the club was first started, there were a lot of coaches who volunteered their time to help advance the club. We would like to recognize and give them a huge shoutout below:
Rick Tyler founded Exothermics Robotics and was a coach for the club. Mr. Tyler is the Director of Robot Mesh, where he creates curricula and software for the VEX Robotics program and schools. Additionally, from 2010 to 2016, Mr. Tyler was the Director of Online Challenges and the Regional Support Manager for the Robotics Education and Competition Foundation. Unfortunately, he left Exothermic Robotics in 2017, and as a result, our club has become student led, with no official coaches at all.
Fun Fact: Mr. Tyler loves birding, and will often go up into the mountains to observe as well as take pictures of them!
Bruce Reynolds was a co-founder, director, treasurer, and mentor starting from the second year of Exothermic Robotics, and is no longer a coach for Exothermic anymore. He worked with Team Salsa (VRC 417), which was an all-girls rookie team. With his help, the team built a sophisticated, reliable robot, eventually earning a position at Worlds. Outside of his work for Exothermic Robotics and Yellowstone Robotics, Reynolds is an instructor at the University of Washington. He is part of the UW Professional and Continuing Education program and teaches Computer Science courses. Check out his website here: http://www.brucereynolds.com.
Fun Fact: He shares the same name with an English criminal mastermind who pulled off the 1963 Great Train Robbery. When Reynolds (not the criminal Reynolds) was a kid, his parents showed him the article about the train robbery with his name printed on it. They even had it custom printed as a gag gift!
Melinda Tyler is Rick Tyler's wife, and has been a mentor from the beginning of VEX as well, supporting all the teams. She is no longer a mentor either.
Pete Saxby sponsored and helped advise the Exothermic Robotics Club in its first couple of years. He used to be a Physics teacher at Redmond High School, although since then, he has moved to Tesla STEM High School in the Lake Washington School District.
Bruce Haley was a mentor from the first year that Exothermic Robotics was started. However, he is no longer a coach for Exothermic anymore.
Rob Krasser was a mentor from the first year that Exothermic Robotics was started, though he is no longer a coach for Exothermic anymore. He was a technical coach, and taught the earlier teams how to build their robots, program, etc.
Chris Culler was a technical mentor starting from the second year of Exothermic Robotics, though he is no longer a coach for Exothermic anymore.
Hagi Habibi was a technical mentor starting from the second year of Exothermic Robotics, though he is no longer a coach for Exothermic anymore.
Heidi Lovett was a non-engineering mentor starting from the second year of Exothermic Robotics, though she is longer a mentor anymore.
Carolyn Davids was a non-engineering mentor starting from the second year of Exothermic Robotics, though she is no longer a mentor anymore.
Shannon Nagamine was a non-engineering mentor starting from the second year of Exothermic Robotics, though she is no longer a mentor anymore.
Brandon Coll is a VEX alumnus. He showed up several times throughout the 2018 VEX season and the 2019 season to help the Exothermic teams. After leaving VEX, he has had a successful career with a stable job at Microsoft as a software engineer.