Lead Mentors

Mike Sousa

Mike Sousa is one of our club's founding mentors. He graduated from UC Santa Cruz majoring in both biology and bio-chemistry, going on to be a fleet manager at UPS for 27 years. Since then, he has worked at San Marin High School as the auto shop teacher, and is now in retirement. He has a lifelong enthusiasm for automotive mechanics, and his engineering knowledge and boundless charisma helps lead us through every year. ​

Tim Buss

Tim Buss is our other founding mentor. He has 3 decades of experience in the software industry, and was instrumental in the founding of our club by providing our first pieces of equipment. Two of his children were also a part of the robotics team. His experience in software coupled with his guidance helps the students learn to program and operate the robot, making him crucial to this club. ​

Mentors

Chris Fehring

Chris Fehring has been a Penguin Empire mentor for 4 years. He went to the University of Washington and is now a mechanical engineer at Pac-12 Enterprises. Three of his kids are members of our robotics team and his engineering knowledge helps us build and test our prototypes. 

Lee Hamovitz

​This is the 3rd year that Lee Hamovitz has been a construction and engineering mentor for us. He went to college at UC Berkeley. His son is on our programming team. He is also Mike Sousa's "archenemy" and describes himself as more of a tor-mentor than a mentor. His engineering knowledge and skill with tools helps us make our robots.