Dr. Newland Agbenowosi has mentored the IronMechs team since 2015. He is passionate about introducing students of all ages and abilities to STEM and STEM career fields. Dr. Agbenowosi also enjoys working with students to develop critical and probing questions that enables them to develop effective solutions for the problems they seek to tackle. His professional expertise is in the field of Geospatial Information and technologies.
Dr. Maria Uriyo is the Executive Director and Instructor at Abacus Robotics. She has been a VEX Robotics coach since 2015. She enjoys teaching and believes robotics is a great vehicle for learning how to solve problems and work in teams. Trained as a scientist, with experience in the Food Industry and Health Care sectors, she brings her skills in research, analytics and project management to the team. She is a graduate of Fordham University, Virginia Tech and Georgetown University.
Ms. Thecla Uriyo has been a VEX IQ coach since 2016. She co-leads an afterschool program in the Harrisburg area, serves as an instructor and is also the field trip coordinator. Thecla successfully coached a team to the PA VEX IQ State Championships and US National Championships in the 2017-2018 season. Her background is in architecture; she holds a Bachelor of Architecture degree and has over 15 years of experience in the field. She also is an experienced instructor; teaching at the elementary, middle school, high school and college levels.
The teams she has coached to date have received the following awards:
2016 – 2017:
Judges Award (Pennsylvania)
2017-2018:
Execellence Award (Pennsylvania)
STEM Research Project Award (Pennsylvania)