We would not be able to do everything that we do without the knowledge and dedication of our amazing mentors. They bring technical experience and invaluable advice that furthers our mission of providing a positive high school team experience through robotics while inspiring intellectual creativity, fostering a passion for science, technology, and engineering, and developing critical thinking, problem solving, and team building skills. Learn more about them here!

Garrison Price

Head Coach, Mechanical, Controls

Garrison works for the Navy as a civilian researcher with a focus on augmented and virtual reality. He has a BS in Computer Science from San Diego State University and is currently working towards a MS in Computer Science at his alma mater. He is a founding member of Team 3128 and focuses primarily on mechanical design. He is currently too busy to have any other hobbies but when he is able to sneak away from the workshop, he enjoys hiking, rock climbing, and cooking.

Christine Low

Marketing, Mechanical

Christine Low holds a Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Rhode Island (go Rams!) and a Masters in Electro-Optical engineering from the University of South Carolina (Go Gamecocks!). Attempted life as a Yankee in the South with Westinghouse Nuclear Fuels, but was whisked back to the north by her (now) husband, where she spent 20 years at Northrop Grumman (Chicago) in IR and UV aircraft missile defense. When she is not in the robotics workshop, you can find her gardening, sewing, at Crossfit, racing sailboats and attempting to learn to surf (very, very badly).

Pat Maynard

Strategy

Pat is no stranger to FIRST. He has been mentoring FRC Team 3128 since 2018 and prior to that he was a coach for several FLL teams competing in the SD area. He has a BSEE and worked for many years doing embedded software development, but currently he works as a Cloud Security Architect. He brings a wide variety of skills to the team including: wood working, coding, wiring, networking, and agile program management.

Lisa Saam

Mechanical

Lisa is Vice President-Projects at ATA Engineering – an engineering services company – where she has worked for more than two decades doing analysis-driven mechanical design of structures ranging from satellites and launch vehicles to theme park attractions and aerospace ground support equipment. She received her M.S. in Structural Engineering from Cornell University, B.S. in Engineering from Harvey Mudd College, and B.A. in Management–Engineering from Claremont McKenna College. Lisa supports Team 3128 with parent communication, travel, and looks forward to working more with the mechanical department. In her spare time, she enjoys hiking, camping, yoga, and beach picnics.

Paul Saam

Liaison

Paul has a B.S. in Engineering from Harvey Mudd College. He worked as a medical device engineer for two startups, driving them both out of business, before deciding to obtain his MBA at Duke University. He has spent the last 17 years working in Business Development for Zimmer Biomet, a global orthopedics company. He works primarily with the Business team, supporting the Robotics Summer Camp and acts as a liaison with the Canyon Crest Academy Foundation.

Fred Chen

Controls

Fred has a B.S. in Electrical Enginering from Cornell University with an emphasis in digital signal processing. He started his career at a large company in San Diego, gloriously pulling cables out of cellular telecom equipment, before he realized software and Legos were his calling. He worked at several enterprise software company startups in the Bay Area before moving back to San Diego to pursue his ultimate passion in mobile application software. Incubating mobile application products on a fledgling “Android 1.0” mobile platform, he was unsuccessful in convincing executives to invest in this game changing mobile platform because it was “unproven with limited market potential”, and investments were better made in “tried and true mobile platforms that would stand the test of time” - Symbian, Windows Mobile, and Blackberry O/S... Fred spent the remainder of his career managing large mobile software engineering teams developing Android and iOS connectivity application products. In his spare time, he enjoys racing and breaking his Miatas at autocrosses and track day events or adding to his growing tool collection.

Sylvia Chan

Liaison

Sylvia has a B.S. and M.S. in Nursing from UCLA. She has worked as RN and Nurse Practitioner in the past. Currently she is a charge nurse in Scripps Urgent Care Torrey Pines. Sylvia has been supporting Team 3128 since 2016. She is the team liaison. She helps in travel and meal planning during competition. She loves to travel, read and spending time with her family. Go Narwhals!!

Anna Lee

Liaison

Anna Lee was born in Seoul, Korea and grew up in Duesseldorf, Germany. She graduated from Brown University with degree in Biology. She then did some graduate work at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. She loves to travel, cook, and collect LEGO sets.

Peter Fitzgibbons

Peter Fitzgibbons is a Senior Software Developer - Front End for Amazon AWS, working on the OpenSearch open-source project. Peter has been a software engineer for 25 years, and is helping the Narhwahl website, controls, and admin teams to keep their software projects moving. As an AFOL (Adult Fan of Lego), Peter has been interested in robotics for a very long time through the Mindstorms Lego products. Finally, his robotics knowledge comes to good use with a real robotics team!