Student Spotlight

​This month we are featuring 11th grade student, Jon Christiansen.  Jon has been involved in robotics and started competing in 2012 on a First Lego League (FLL) team. They used Lego Mindstorm to program a vehicle to navigate through obstacles on a board course. His team, the “Elderly Engineers,” won second place for their speed times in the regional competition held at the Air Force Academy.

In 2014 Jon joined the First League Team Komodo 4293. His team competes in a regional tournament the last weekend in March at Denver University with over 50 other teams from across the nation. For six weeks in January and February his student-led team builds a robot to perform specific tasks on a large field course. At the scrimmages and tournaments the teams work collaboratively with other teams to improve their robot’s design and performance, as well as compete for awards. Team Komodo 4293 is a year round team supported by mentors and a local machine shop. They are involved in outreach to the community, fundraising, teaching CAD and mechanical skills, social events, and promoting robotics at FFL events.  Jon has been a spokesperson for his team for the last two years and enjoys demonstrating and talking about past-built robots to young spectators. 

In the past Jon has been the Pit Boss for his team during tournaments, maintaining and organizing the pit area for the robot’s repairs. This year he is  Assembly Lead, overseeing the assembly of the robot. He enjoys both designing robot parts through CAD, machining the parts, and assembling the robots. The skills and experiences Jon has had from First League Robotics have encouraged him to start his own business helping neighbors with odd jobs and building his own computers. Because of these experiences Jon has discovered he would like to pursue a career in engineering graphics technology and/or computer support  technology.

We are so proud of Jon’s accomplishments and wish him the best in all future robotic competitions!

​You can learn more about Jon’s Team Komodo 4293 at: 
http://www.youngengineers.us

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