about us
We design accessible, student-driven, and STEAM-focused workshops, events, projects, and opportunities exploring the intersections of creativity, computation, community, and collaboration.
Our Mission
To create a platform
for particularly driven students...
 
to grow as teachers and creators via in-depth, hands-on, student-presented workshops, and connect with opportunities for personal, professional, and entrepreneurial exposure, growth, and development.
To create spaces
for FRC teams to network and collaborate...
in a noncompetitive yet still intense environment, as a complement to offseason competitions, especially on topics typically underrepresented within teams.
To engage relevant local companies, colleges, and maker community spaces...
to help both host our events and inform our workshops with their professional experience - providing students an inside glimpse into the wider world of STEAM, while connecting companies and community members directly with potential future talent.
To maintain
a sustainable, independent organization...
that continues to give back to and grow not only the local FRC volunteer base wherever we run events, but also the STEAM community at large.
Our Team
We are an independent community organization composed primarily of mentors, students, and alumni from over a dozen FIRST® Robotics Competition (FRC) teams across California, supported by generous sponsors and additional mentors.
Adena Park
Kinetic Media
Team 2643 Alum &
Former Vice President
Aidan Ferrer
Business
Teams 299 & 4159 Mentor
Team 4159 Alum
Alina Kim
Artificial Intelligence
Team 604 Alum &
Former Programming Lead
Andy Ding
Mechanical Design
Team 115 President
 
Anna Shaposhnik
Kinetic Media / Business
Team 846 Officer at Large
 
Portfolio
Annalee Soohoo
Business
Team 8 Alum &
Former Assistant Captain
Chelina Wong
Mechanical Design
Team 115 Subsystem Lead
 
Clayton Ou
Project Administrator
Team 3501 Mentor
Tesseract Initiative
Connie Liu
Kinetic Media
Team 4159 Graphic Designer
 
Doug Silver
Business
Team 4159 Student Mentor
 
Emma Blenkinsop
Business / Mechanical Design
Team 4159 President
 
Grace Lam
Artificial Intelligence
Team 1868 Autonomous Director
 
Hrushi Athreya
Mechanical Design
Team 115 Subsystem Lead
 
Janae Zhang
Kinetic Media
Team 299 Alum &
Former Media Lead
Jennifer Xu
Business
Team 8 Co-Captain
 
Lili Sun
Artificial Intelligence
Team 1868 Programming Captain
 
Lynn Dang
Kinetic Media
Team 1868 Alum &
Former Programming Captain
Maya Chin
Kinetic Media
Team 8 Alum &
Former Art Captain
Mokshith Voodarla
Artificial Intelligence
Team 2473 President
 
Namita Mekala
Mech. Design / Kinetic Media
Team 1868 Alum &
Former Design Director
Nichole Wong
Kinetic Media
Team 1351 Alum &
Former Member
 
Nick Hammes
Project Mentor
Team 254 Mentor
Google
Peter Feghali
Artificial Intelligence
Team 254 Alum &
Former Media
Rachel Lim
Mechanical Design
Team 1868 Alum &
Former Mechanical Captain
Renee Van
Business
Team 2073 Alum &
Former Business Lead
Sarah Parkes
Business
Team 2102 Team President
 
Tamara Kawa
Mechanical Design / Business
Team 1967 Alum &
Former Marketing / Mech.
Tan Nguyen
Kinetic Media
Team 2643 Alum &
Former President
Thenu Senthil
Business / AI
Team 604 Alum &
Former Public Relations Lead
LinkedIn
Past Contributors
We’d like to thank the following individuals for having presented and/or helped with logistics at our past events. They’ve all since moved on to other horizons, but our team will always remain grateful for their contributions - without them, we wouldn't be where we are now!

2018: Amanda Liu (Team 1678), Jacob Baker (Team 1671), Thuy Nguyen (Team 604)
2017: Ananya Bapat (Team 3501), Ben McAuliffe (Team 8), Clarissa Kam (Team 1868), Erika Estrada (Team 2643), Erin Mar (Team 1868), Evan Yap (Team 3501), Ginger Schmidt (Team 971), Jake McCann (Team 1678), Lauren Meier (Team 3501), Sean Stone (Team 3501)
2015: Daniel Zhang (Team 3501), Isabelle Pichay (Team 1868), Novia Wong (Team 604)
2014: Griffin Bajor (Team 8)
2013: Domenic Allen (Team 100), Emma Lewis (Team 115)
2012: Annie Zhang (Team 1351), Mayank Tiwari (Team 2367), Patrick Ruehl (Team 192), Rachel Leung (Team 840), Vivek Sridhar (Team 2367), Yuka Sakazaki (Team 192)
Frequently Asked Questions
Where did the name come from? A tesseract is the four-dimensional analog to a cube. It symbolizes our four core themes – creativity, computation, community, and collaboration – as well as our goal of taking things to the “next level”; we also thought a geometry reference was appropriate given our STEAM leanings. It is not a reference to any objects of the same name in any works of fiction, nor are we affiliated with any other similarly named organizations or projects.
What are all these team numbers I see above? Those are the numbers of the FRC teams we were/are involved in; these numbers are assigned to teams when they first sign up to participate in the FRC program. If you'd like to learn more about a team, visit The Blue Alliance and enter their team number in the top right!
Are any contributions I make tax-deductible? Is Tesseract Initiative a registered nonprofit? Unfortunately, no, not at this time - we currently exist only as a de facto unincorporated nonprofit association. We are, however, working towards formalizing our structure in the near future - contact us if you can help!
How do I get involved? If you'd like to help present or plan, please note that because we try to maintain a small, tightly knit team, and because our existing members already tend to keep an eye out for and recruit new members as necessary each year, we are not usually in need of additional members. So if you want to get involved in those areas, consider helping out with our sister project, the WRRF workshops, which runs larger events and as such has more of a need for more volunteers.
(But if you really still think you'd be a good fit for us, contact one of us and tell us about your background, and we'll get back to you from there!)

If you'd like to support us as a mentor or sponsor though, we'd really appreciate the help! You can learn more about that on our sponsors page.
I have a question about your branding. Who can I talk to? Our branding was designed in-house, primarily by Team 846 student Anna Shaposhnik - you can view her portfolio here! - and project admin Clayton Ou, with input from the rest of the team. You can reach either of them via our contact page.

FIRST® and FIRST® Robotics Competition (FRC) are registered trademarks of FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), a 501(c)(3) STEM nonprofit. FIRST is not directly affiliated with, nor an endorser of, our programs. We are, however, vastly grateful for all we’ve learned from our participation in theirs!