Previous FIRST Teams:

second year with team 2449!

Main Area(s) of Involvement:

Electrical & Control Systems, Programming

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John Baca

My career started in automation, specifically designing wafer handling systems for the semiconductor industry. For my generation, silicon wafers started out at 4” dia. and when I left the industry to go into aerospace, we were spinning, chucking, flipping & manipulating 12” dia. wafers using articulating robotic arms. My wife has always worked in the Gilbert school district, and I started volunteering during her school’s career day in the 90s. Each year, my table top demo had some robotic device using the LEGO Mindstorm block, and each year was a challenge to take some thunder away from careers like SWAT or getting rides on fire trucks. This is my second year with FIRST and with Team 2449. I am very proud of the students’ & teachers’ commitment which makes me look forward to participating and mentoring. I encourage all students to take advantage of FIRST benefits, particularly in the networking. I also request that the students encourage their parents to come by more often to meet with the mentors. Having parents show some interest will have long term positive effects on the Team and on the students. Other interests are camping, dirt bike riding and on occasion at work I’ll participate in starting up an ear-piercing rocket engine or causing a chest-pounding sonic boom by detonating ordnance.