Meet The Mentors

Aaron Haymans

Aaron has been our lead mentor for the last three years, though he has been a part of the Robohawks team for much longer!  He joined the team as a junior while attending Bird years ago (we love having alumni as mentors).  He returned to mentor as a “drive coach” and the rest is history.  While he enjoys helping the team during the building process, his favorite part of the job is mentoring the students at the competitions.  He has honed his skills as the driving coach and has developed many ways to help the students strategize amongst themselves and with other teams as they build alliances. This is an important part of competing and has certainly been a big factor in the team’s achievements. Contributing to Aaron’s success in this area is his exceptional knowledge of the rule book, which has jokingly been named “the Sacred Text.”  The student’s appreciate Aaron’s easy going manner and his time and dedication to the team!  

Chuck Grainger

Mr. Chuck has generously given his time to the Robohawks since the inception of the team in 2000–the longest of any other volunteer!  He assists with just about every area of the team and rarely misses a build session or event.  He enjoys teaching the new members how to mill and use the lathe, among other equipment.  Mr. Chuck understands the true meaning of FIRST in that it is not just about the robot, but more about the process and spreading a love of STEM in our community..  He loves watching the students learn new skills and explore areas in STEM  they may have never been exposed to anywhere else.  The students love Mr. Chuck, they appreciate the untold number of hours he has given to the team, and could not imagine the program without him.  

Paul Elkovich

Mr. Elkovich has been with the Robohawks since 2004!  In addition, he was the lead mentor for over 15 years–such time and dedication!  Mr. Elkovich joined the team when his daughters participated years ago.  He brings to the team over forty years of mechanical engineering experience and the team would not have had the many successes without him.  Mr. Elkovich guides the students as they design the robot and then is always available to assist with its construction.  It is hard to quantify the hours STEM education he has provided the students over his many years of volunteering. Even though his children are grown, he chooses to give his time to the Robohawks as he immensely enjoys the building process, the joy of competition, and helping increase the love of STEM in our school community and beyond.   

Helmut Thielsch

Mr. Thielsch is the Robohawks Faculty sponsor.  He is infamous for his rigorous engineering seminar classes, but also for his desire to support students in their academic success.  He has been teaching at L.C. Bird for 17 years and brings a wealth of knowledge to the team. 

Kathryn Clarke

Mrs. Clarke is the Director of the Engineering Academy.  She is also a graduate of L.C. Bird.  She supports our team in invaluable ways, including helping the team with travel, fundraisers, communications, and much more.  

Mark Clifton 

Mark recently joined our team as a mentor, though he has been involved with FIRST for 15 years.  He has volunteered at numerous competitions and brings valuable knowledge to the team.  Mark has a degree in engineering and enjoys helping students learn new skills.  

Frank Hoose

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Mr. Hoose is one of the self-described "resident machinists" of the team. His interest in tinkering began when he was very young, making and fixing anything he could get his hands on. His professional career was all about computers; he has worked on both computer hardware and software, as well as management. He has over 50 years in experience working on metal machining tools, particularly lathes. He has provided greatly appreciated machining knowledge, equipment, training, and time to the team. 

Check out his YouTube channel @frankhoose!

Dak Griffith 

Dak is one of our most recent mentor additions, but they've been with the team since 2019. Joining the team as a Sophomore in 2018 and graduating in 2021, they came back to mentor during the 2022 competition season. They love assisting with the electrical aspects of the robot, but scouting and strategy is where they really shine. Whether it be assisting with creating stats spreadsheets, teaching students about the importance of scouting, talking through kickoff game analysis, or even helping lead strategy discussions, that's Dak's main expertise. Dak also spends countless hours watching matches, recording data, and doing research on other teams' designs to help further the Robohawks' own designs and strategic thinking. The students appreciate Dak's connections and relationships with personnel on other local and global teams.

Viet Tran

Viet is the Robohawks programming mentor.  He is a senior at VCU and will graduate with a degree in biomedical engineering.  He plans to attend medical school and become a pediatrician  Viet learned about Robohawks from an alumni of the program, and though he is not from the area he offered up his time.  He has been an essential part of the team and has taught many students how to program the robot. It is a tedious job that requires lots of patience, but Viet’s calm manner and sense of humor helps him inspire the students to have a love of STEM. Though he is a busy college student, Viet gives numerous hours of time to the team, because he enjoys teaching and watching as the students learn all of the new skills it takes to build and program the robot.  .