David Hogan

Lakeland FL  

With Team 1731 for 7 years  (2008-2014)  

I am currently in the Aviation Maintenance field working on fighter aircraft weapons systems and working on a bachelor's in occupational safety. Team 1731 was instrumental in getting me where I am today. When I first joined FIRST robotics I had a good grasp on mechanics, but I had no idea how much further I could go. Thanks to Brent Leppke and the team of mentors, I was catapulted into engineering, coding, mechanics, and electrical systems. I was often encouraged to go out of my comfort zone, which laid a solid foundation for me to make my own future. I will still find myself working on an aircraft and realizing how similar the problem is to something that I worked on during my robotics days. One of my favorite memories was getting the opportunity to explain our robot’s design to engineers that sponsored us. It was a cool feeling to see these engineers be amazed at what we came up with. Overall, this team is awesome and will set you up for success.