Lunar Excavation Crew

Many people assist in the design, construction, testing and competition of the robots in a variety of ways. Here are some of the current and past team members as well as support staff.

Team Members

Name: Paul Ventimiglia
Role: Team Leader
Office Job: Regional Manager
CRUD Name: Jailbait
Favorite Battlebot: The Judge
Favorite Tool: MIG Welder
Favorite Robot Event Attended: Battlebots show at Java One
Favorite Office Quote: Well it is a little chillier than I had thought, so I have fashioned my hat back into my pants. Several hours in, time for me to find some nourishment. Now, these woods are full of creatures that can sustain human life. Things like, uh, squirrels, nice juicy rabbit would be delicious. -Michael Scott
More About Me: Paul Ventimiglia, the key designer and builder of all the robots listed on this site, is a Robotics Engineering student at WPI. He is well known in the combat robotics community for is award winning hobbyweight, middleweight, and heavyweight robots. He is a mentor on a FIRST Robotics Team and spends most of his free time dreaming up new robot ideas.

Name: Colleen Shaver
Role: Fabrication, Strategy, and Web support
Office Job: Assistant TO THE Regional Manager
CRUD Name: Traitor
Favorite Battlebot: Ziggy
Favorite Tool: Paul V
Favorite Robot Event Attended: Robogames 2006
Favorite Office Quote: I'll be the Number Two guy here in Scranton in six weeks. How? Name repetition, personality mirroring, and never breaking off a handshake. I'm always thinking one step ahead. Like a carpenter that makes stairs. -Andy Bernard
More About Me: Colleen Shaver has been interested in robots since getting involved with her local FIRST team in 1996. Since then, she has worked on many FIRST teams and robots and been a member of the Team Demolition combat robot team. She is the Manager of Robotics Initiatives at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Name: Brian Loveland
Role: Electrical, Programming, Supervision
Office Job: Assistant Regional Manager, Paper Salesman
CRUD Name: Stumpy
Favorite Battlebot:
Favorite Tool:
Favorite Robot Event Attended:
Favorite Office Quote: "That's what she said" -Michael Scott
More About Me:

Name: Mike Ciaraldi
Role: Robot Programming, Computation
Office Job: Temp
CRUD Name: Maytag
Favorite Battlebot: Blendo
Favorite Tool: emacs
Favorite Robot Event Attended: Robot Wars 1997
Favorite Office Quote:
More About Me: Mike Ciaraldi is a Professor-of-Practice in the Computer Science department at WPI.

Name: Jennifer Flynn
Role: Lunar Rock Star, Programmer-to-Programmer Relations and Translation
Office Job: Branch Manager
CRUD Name: Commie
Favorite Battlebot: Goose
Favorite Tool: grep
Favorite Robot Event Attended: That one I went to one time (translation: RoboGames 2006)
Favorite Office Quote: I don't talk trash. I talk smack. They're totally different. Trash talk is all hypothetical like 'Your Mama's so fat she could eat the internet' but smack talk is happening like right now, like ‘you're ugly and I know it for a fact cause I got the evidence right there.' -Kelly Kapoor
More About Me:

Name: Marc DeVidts
Role: GUI Development
Office Job: Receptionist
CRUD Name: Rection
Favorite Battlebot: Complete Control
Favorite Tool: CNC Mill
Favorite Robot Event Attended: Battlebots Season 5
Favorite Office Quote: ..workin on it..
More About Me: Marc DeVidts is an accomplished software developer and robot builder who has been involved with robotics for over seven years. In addition to building award-winning combat robots on the high school, college, and professional level, Marc also designs the software and hardware control systems that run the BattleBots and RFL events. His website www.buildersdb.com is well-known in the robot-building community as the definitive robot event and registration database. While he is not building robots, Marc works as the lead software developer writing web applications for a media company in Miami Beach, Florida.

Team Robots

Name: Moonraker 2.0
Role: The Real Robot
Office Job: CFO
CRUD Name:
Favorite Battlebot: Land Shark
Favorite Tool: Shop Vac
Favorite Robot Event Attended: None yet
Favorite Office Quote: "Wow that is really hard. You really think you can go all day long? Well, you always left me satisfied and smiling." -Jim Halper
More About Me: Moonraker 2.0 is Paul's Robotics entry in the 2009 Regolith Challenge. She's got lots of cool parts and suggests you check out her Picasa album to really understand her.

Name: Woody
Role: Robot
Office Job: Supplier Relations
CRUD Name:
Favorite Battlebot:
Favorite Tool: Allen wrenches
Favorite Robot Event Attended: None yet
Favorite Office Quote: "So I don't think that this is totally just a women's suit. At the very least it's bisexual." -Michael Scott
More About Me: Woody is the test robot for the 2009 Regolith Excavation Challenge entry, Moonraker. He got his name because he looks like the stage at Woodstock.

Support Staff

Name: Mike Fagan
Role: Machinist, CNC Assistant, Whatever we ask him to do
Office Job: Temp
CRUD Name: Peta
Favorite Battlebot:
Favorite Tool: Die Filer
Favorite Robot Event Attended:
Favorite Office Quote: .
More About Me: Mike just loves working on robots.

Name: The Sifters - Francis O'Rourke, Steve Kaneb, Cody Fulcher, Mike Fagan, Dan Jones, Jeff O'Rourke
Role: Remove rocks from sand
Office Job: Vance Refrigeration Warehouse Staff
CRUD Name: O-Face, Alex, NFN, Peta, Hanes, Dastard
Favorite Battlebot: Spare Parts
Favorite Tool: Sifter
Favorite Robot Event Attended:
Favorite Office Quote:"I'm losing money on this man just, give me the money. Alright, walk away" -Vance Refrigeration Warehouse Worker
More About Me:

Name: David Ventimiglia
Role: Earth Re-entry Specialist
Office Job: Assistant
CRUD Name:
Favorite Battlebot:
Favorite Tool:
Favorite Robot Event Attended:
Favorite Office Quote:
More About Me:

Past Support Staff

Name: Ken Stafford
Role: Mechanical Support, Airport Limo
Office Job: Traveling Sales Associate
CRUD Name: Blackhole
Favorite Battlebot:
Favorite Tool:
Favorite Robot Event Attended:
Favorite Office Quote:
More About Me: Ken is the Director of the Robotics Resource Center at WPI

Name: Aaron Holroyd
Role: Software Development
Office Job: Quality Assurance
CRUD Name: Pool Dip
Favorite Battlebot:
Favorite Tool:
Favorite Robot Event Attended:
Favorite Office Quote:
More About Me: Aaron is a Robotics Engineering and Computer Science (double major) graduate from WPI

Name: Brad Miller
Role: Electronics Support
Office Job: Sales
CRUD Name: Byte Me
Favorite Battlebot:
Favorite Tool:
Favorite Robot Event Attended:
Favorite Office Quote:
More About Me: Brad Miller is the Associate Director of the Robotics Resource Center at WPI.

Name: Kevin Brobrowski
Role: Electronics Support
Office Job: IT Guy
CRUD Name: Melon
Favorite Battlebot:
Favorite Tool:
Favorite Robot Event Attended:
Favorite Office Quote:
More About Me: