As a team that has been around for two decades, the Techno Titans have been fortunate to receive support from a wide range of dedicated individuals. Among our most prominent supporters are our esteemed mentors who generously dedicate their time to make sure Techno Titans has the support and funding to sustain the team. Our mentors go above and beyond, offering their expertise and advice, and helping us when we need it the most. Their contributions play a crucial role in the development of the team. Since mentors and team members do a lot for the team, we decided to dedicate a series of blog posts to recognizing their contributions. In these posts we will be interviewing them to get a better sense of who they are, what motivates them, and why they choose to invest their time in the Techno Titans. It's a great opportunity for us to learn more about the people behind the Techno Titans and give them the recognition they deserve.
The mentor that we interviewed today is Mr. Howard, the longest serving mentor on the Techno Titans. He has played a crucial role in supporting the team and uses his work and life experience to help students.
Howard Evans grew up in Ohio and knew from a young age that he wanted to be an electrical engineer like his father. Eventually, he went to The Ohio State University after transferring from Dayton and worked in the electronic lab with the physics department. After graduating, Mr. Howard got a job in Atlanta as a contract engineer, and when his contract was over, he began work at NORDSON. He has been working there since 1997. Over the years, he has held many positions, but he started as a test engineer.
In this interview, we wanted to understand what drove him to support Techno Titans and become a mentor.
Q1: How long have you been with the Techno titans?
Mr. Howard: “I have been working with them since 2007”
Q2: What first motivated you to support Techno titans and become a mentor?
Mr. Howard: “I went to watch them at the World championship in Atlanta because my company sponsors the Techno Titans, and they asked a lot of engineers if they would like to go down and see the team they were sponsoring. I went down and I was amazed by what they were doing. When I was in high school I tried to build a robot (wasn't anything fancy like today because of the technology) but that was something I always wanted to do and so I thought it would be fun to participate as their (our) mentor.”
Q3: How has your own experiences in the real world helped out the team in some way, shape, or form? (job experience, hobbies, etc.)
Mr. Howard: “I am an engineer and even though I am an electrical engineer I do have to do a lot of mechanics - I have a pretty broad background in electrical and mechanical engineering. Plus since I have been a mentor for so long I have seen many things related to first robotics and my experience helps a lot there too. I have seen what works and what does not work.”
Q4: Do you have any advice for future and current members of Techno Titans?
Mr. Howard: “Keep learning, don't think that you know everything and keep learning as much as you can, especially new things. Don't cage yourself to one area of interest. Keep them broad.”
To truly get a grasp on how important Mr. Howard is to the team, we also asked members of the team that have worked closely with him a question.
Q: How has Mr. Howard helped you and continues to help you?
AKARSH (Head of Strategy):
Mr. Howard is good for feedback as he tells us what he needs for us to improve, particularly our efficiency. He gives us a great deal of information about how we need to look at the field and what is important strategically. We've implemented a lot of his feedback in our scouting app and in our pit scouting forms.
CHARLEEN (Head of Design):
My most significant memories of Mr. Howard is when he helped me build the sign for the front office of Northview. I remember doing this through my birthday, he spent like six hours just helping me build the sign. It was a genuinely nice experience. Other than that, Mr. Howard has helped me a lot with other projects, he's usually the guy who does all of our design reviews and everything else and he is a very essential and significant part of our team. He is really skilled ranging from woodwork to electrical to anything else when I was on the electrical team. He spent multiple weekdays teaching us about electrical circuits. That was really fun, and I really enjoyed it. Other than that, he is one of the main mentors that you always see at the workspace, he's always there for you, he’s always sitting at his desk, ready for any questions. At a moment's notice, he'll get up and check on the robot. Sometimes it's more critical than other times, but each time it helped us improve the robot in one way, shape, or form.
ERIC (Head of safety):
He helps us by giving us guidance around all the technical robot work and building. He’s there all the time. Just whenever he’s here, he's giving us advice.
ALEX (President of the club):
Well, he's tough on all of us, he's always questioning what we’re doing, always trying to poke holes in our logic and reasoning, to try and bring the best outcome. It helps us improve and catching mistakes that we shouldn't be making in the first place. He's always giving genuine suggestions and things that help.
AYUSH (Head of engineering):
Mr. Howard is very skilled technically as he's very strong mechanically, electrically, coding. As engineering head I have learned so many different things from him, even something small like how to not cross thread a screw. He teaches me passively everyday by just discussing basic information that's important for me to know. And I feel like he's very encouraging, like if I don’t know something, he doesn’t get mad at me and makes sure I know what I’m doing.
It's clear that Mr. Howard has a real passion for what he does as a mentor for the Techno Titans. His positive influence can be seen in all aspects of the team. Through his steadfast guidance of 18 years over team members, Mr. Howard will always be a key part of the Techno Titans family.
