Sarah Withee
Lead Mentor
Focus area: FTC technical, 7th-12th grade business

Sarah Withee is an engineering director, polyglot software engineer, international public speaker, and hardware and robot tinkerer who is passionate about the intersection of technology and people. Recently she’s been the Head of Backend Development for CODE PA and a software engineering consultant with 18F doing digital transformation work around state and federal government. She’s been a lifelong geek after learning programming as a kid, and has been a FIRST technical mentor and volunteer since 2011. She’s spoken at over 80 events, been on over two dozen podcasts, been interviewed for Teen Vogue and Reinvented Magazine, and even appeared on a Google Year in Search video!

Melanie Drake
Mentor
Focus area: FIRST Ladies

Melanie Drake is a Senior Software Engineer at ClubLabs with decades of experience building software. She got her start writing statistical analysis software for fMRI data at the University of Pittsburgh, and has since built software spanning industrial hygiene, occupational medicine, printed circuit board design, Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) training, and fintech, including a system to monitor nuclear propulsion aboard U.S. Navy submarines. She holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Duquesne University.

Pujal Gandhi
Mentor
Focus area: Finance

Pujal Gandhi is a Software Engineer working at Broadcom, where she works on modernizing how current day mainframe developers access and work on the mainframe. Pujal graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 2024 with a degree in Computer Science and has experience working with technologies such as Java, Python, and cloud-based services. Additionally, she serves on the Junior Board of 1000 Dreams Fund, a nonprofit focused on empowering women through education and career development. Outside of work, she enjoys traveling, pilates, and trying new coffee shops.

Cory Gwin
Mentor
Focus area: Programming

George Kantor
Mentor, CMU Staff, Girls of Steel Founder
Focus area: Design

Andrew Kysel
Mentor
Focus area: FIRST LEGO League

Andrew Kysel is a retired elementary school teacher. He taught 3rd grade in the Seneca Valley School District for 25 years. Andrew holds a BA in government from Franklin and Marshall College (1974) and a MS degree in electrical engineering from Columbia University (1985). He worked for Westinghouse before returning to his teaching career. Andrew enjoys working with bright, motivated students of all ages. His daughter, Liz, is a GoS alum.

Sarah Maynard
Mentor
Focus area: Media and Graphic Design

Tabatha Pina
Mentor
Focus area: Design

Tabatha went to Carnegie Mellon University for mechanical engineering. She can be found at the library, teaching classes at a local yarn shop, or hiding in the corner CADing for fun.

PJ Reiniger
Mentor
Focus area: FRC Programming

Abby Shrack
Mentor
Focus area: FRC Mechanical, Outreach

Abby Shrack is a software engineer at PNC, where she works on automated governance and auditing for the software development pipeline. She graduated in 2023 from Carnegie Mellon University with a degree in Computer Science and a minor in linguistics. She knits and crochets, reads a lot, and loves to nerd out about pretty much anything.

Curtis Sobien
Mentor, CMU Staff
Focus area: FRC Mechanical