MENTORS

Alex Ryker

Alex has been involved with FRC since he joined Team 868 TechHOUNDS in 2007 as a high school freshman. After graduating high school he majored in Computer Science at Purdue University West Lafayette. Throughout that time he continued to commute back to Carmel to mentor 868, and was a founding mentor of 5010 Tiger Dynasty in 2014. After 2014 he primarily mentored for TechHOUNDS until 2025, when close proximity to Fishers High School prompted him to switch back to Tiger Dynasty. Throughout his time in FRC he has focused on the electrical and programming side of robot construction, and he is currently the controls mentor for 5010. He works for Flexware Innovation where he builds hardware and software solutions within the industrial automation space. In his spare time, he enjoys working on his own technical projects, which span across mechanical, electrical, and software engineering.

Amelia Stone

Amelia (Amy) started with the team in 2023, helping with the team’s trip to Worlds and she just never left. She is currently employed by Eli Lilly and Company as a global project manager. She has a bachelor’s degree from St. Mary-of-the-Woods College in Social Science/History and an associate’s degree in Accounting from Ivy Tech. She has acted as business mentor since beginning with the team and is currently the team’s school sponsor. In her free time, she enjoys reading, gardening and photography.

Chaminda Jayamanne

Chaminda, Or CJ for short, started mentoring in 2024 just before Reefscape. He joined mostly to be more active with his son during his senior year of high school. He also wanted to contribute to something that touches so many young minds. CJ graduated with a Bachelor of Science in electronics and computer engineering from Indiana State University. He has had a variety of jobs since graduating, working on Smart TVs at RCA, cable modems at Thomson, audio systems at Delphi, blood glucose meters at Roche, and power supplies for the outdoor plants. He started his career as a test engineer, before moving into test automation, and then into programming, and finally settled into management. He now manages a team of embedded Linux firmware engineers at Enersys, working on powering the cable Broadband networks of Comcast and Charter. Much of his free time is spent tinkering with things to learn about them, usually being some kind of microcontroller. Outside of that, he runs, actively practices martial arts and works out.

Curt Rozeboom

Curt started mentoring for the team in 2016 during the Stronghold Season when his daughter asked for additional help with learning to program the robot in Java. And since then he has never looked back! His daughter is now a working mechanical engineer in Indy. He has a BSE in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Dordt University in Sioux Center, IA. His wife, Patricia, and he moved to Indiana in 1998. She is a church organist and professional piano accompanist. He worked as a Software Engineer in assembly-language, C++, Ruby, Java and now full-stack web-development at Marian Inc. His other hobbies are singing and playing guitar as well as doing other technical hobbies like 3D printing, videography and electronic projects.

Gary Ballard

Gary is a retired chemical engineer with a BS from Purdue. He has a PE license and years of experience in Design for Six Sigma methodologies. Most of his career was spent working on batteries, electrical vehicles and solid oxide fuel cells. He feels fortunate to have spent time in a broad range of engineering fields including,  design, application engineering, research and development and production. Gary joined the team in 2023, after having a great experience working with interns who were members of our team. When He worked with engineering interns that had participated in robotics teams while in high school, he noted that “The interns demonstrated skill and knowledge far beyond interns that did not participate in this kind of robotics program.” He believes this program has real value. In his free time, Gary enjoys hiking mountain trails, paddling rivers, rock climbing and any other activities that help him enjoy outdoor adventures.

Jeremy Stone

Jeremy started mentoring for the team during the Rapid React Season of 2022 when his son mentioned that the team could use some help with creating field elements from wood. As a Field and Fabrication Mentor, He assists students with field component creation along with workshop activities related to robot fabrication. He enjoys watching students learn how to use these tools that they ordinarily would have no exposure to throughout their time in high school. Outside of Robotics, He is a Senior Project Manager for a Commercial General Contractor. He manages between 15 and 30 projects concurrently. With these skills he is able to help students learn the importance of multitasking, the ability to identify project critical path roadblocks and time management. Outside of robotics, He enjoys Golf, Fishing, the outdoors and spending time with his family.

Jim Mailloux

Bio Coming Soon!

Kaleb Cole

Kaleb started his FIRST Robotics Competition experience on team 5010 as one of the founding members in 2014. After graduating the same year, he went on to attend Southern Illinois University of Edwardsville (SIUE) where he received a degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering. His career is focused on programming, currently as an embedded software engineer at Joby Aviation. His mentorship is focused more on his passion for design, fabrication, and assembly of robots. In his free time, he enjoys doing DIY home projects, working on his 3D printers, woodworking and metal working in his garage shop. One of his more exotic hobbies is metallurgy in his homemade foundry, melting down various precious metals (such as old aluminum parts from robots) to make into raw stock for the team to use.

Kyle Heaton

Kyle first started FIRST in 2013 when he joined FRC 45, The TechnoKats, out of Kokomo High School in 2013. He attended Purdue University where he majored in Computer Science and continued to support FIRST as a FIN state-wide volunteer and as the Purdue FIRST Programs Vice President. In addition to mentoring FRC 5010 Tiger Dynasty, he volunteers at FRC events as one of the district’s FIRST Technical Advisors, a role focused on the technical aspects of competitions and FRC events. He currently works for Rolls-Royce as a Systems Security Engineer.

Ryan Dognaux

Ryan has been involved with FIRST Robotics Competition teams for 20+ years now. He started as a student on 234 Cyber Blue in 2002 and attended Purdue University majoring in Virtual Product Integration while mentoring 1646 Precision Guessworks. His first job at Boeing led to him mentoring teams 357 Royal Assault in Philadelphia and then 4329 in St. Charles, Missouri. Moving back to Indiana with his wife and kids led to mentoring 1720 PhyXTGears and now 5010 Tiger Dynasty. During the most recent Indiana stint he has started a company to provide affordable parts to FIRST Robotics teams called The Thrifty Bot. He enjoys mentoring in the areas of design, fabrication, assembly and overall strategy.

Steve Chrisman

Steve started working with the team during the inaugural 2014 Aerial Assist season when his son was the only freshman on the team. Started mentoring on the team at the start of the 2015 season and was also primary coach on the team during the 2015-2017 seasons until the arrival of Mr. Fronius. Steve has a BS in Computer Science from Purdue University and has worked within heavy manufacturing (GM, Bethlehem Steel, Rolls Royce, Allison Transmission) prior to shifting to application integration and web development using Java and other technologies. He has been living in Fishers since 1996 and has seen the city really grow!  In his spare time, he enjoys spending time outdoors and helping manage the family farm.