Team Students, mentors, alumni

Student-led, on purpose.

The ChurroBots elect their own leaders. Two captains coordinate the team and each subteam has a student lead. Mentors bring experience, ask hard questions, and hand the wrench back.

Students: 20+ from 10 high schools
Subteams: Mechanical, CAD, Electrical, Software, Game play, Business development
Meets: Tuesdays & Fridays after school, East Palo Alto

01 Leadership

Captains and subteam leads

Every lead owns a piece of the robot or the business. Together they decide what gets built, how, and by whom.

Sarah
Captain
Thunder
Build captain
Kevin
Mechanical lead
Santi
CAD lead
Ezekiel
Electrical lead
Daniel
Software lead · Controls
Sophia
Software lead · Platform
Yuvraj
Game play & strategy
Bithia
Business development

02 How the team is organized

Six subteams, one robot.

New members try a few before settling in. Most end up doing more than one thing by competition season.

/ 01

Mechanical

Frame, drivetrain, and mechanisms. Cutting, drilling, riveting, and assembling the robot in the workshop.

/ 02

CAD

Designing every part and assembly in 3D before anything is cut, so the whole team builds from one model.

/ 03

Electrical

Power distribution, motor controllers, sensors, and the wiring that has to survive a season of collisions.

/ 04

Software

Controls (making the mechanisms move the right way) and platform (the code and tooling the whole robot runs on).

/ 05

Game play

Reading the game, scouting other teams, and calling strategy for the drive team during matches.

/ 06

Business development

Sponsorships, fundraising, purchasing, logistics, and the team's story on social media and in front of judges.

03 Mentors & coaches

Volunteers who show up every week.

Engineers from local companies, parents, and alumni coach each subteam. The team's lead coach is Greg Corsetto. The Space Cookies (Team 1868) mentored the ChurroBots through their rookie season.

A mentor and two students work on a robot chassis in the workshop — Workshop

A mentor guides two students wiring the electrical board — Electrical

Become a mentor Tutor 1 hr/week · Mentor a subteam 3 hrs/week

Jesse Espino, ChurroBots alumnus, outside TIDE Academy — Jesse Espino, Class of 2025

04 Alumni

Where they go next.

Most ChurroBots will be the first in their family to attend college. Alumni have gone on to study mechanical engineering, computer science, and other technical fields.

Jesse Espino, a first-generation student and ChurroBots alumnus from TIDE Academy, is studying mechanical engineering at Santa Clara University.

Read Jesse's story