About the Teacher

About Me

Since the 1990s, I have been taking systems apart to understand how they work and rebuilding them with greater intention. What began with broken computers and self-taught coding became a lifelong commitment to understanding technology at every layer—from hardware and software to security, design, and engineering.

Cybersecurity emerged naturally from that foundation. For me, it has always been more than defense; it is a way of thinking. To study security is to study failure, architecture, and resilience—to understand how systems break, why they fail, and how they can be made stronger. At heart, I am a hacker in the original sense: driven by curiosity, experimentation, and a relentless need to understand how things work beneath the surface.

I spent years teaching myself computer science while working, later studying it formally at Stockton University and completing my degree in Cybersecurity at Bellevue University. That combination of self-directed learning, academic training, and hands-on technical practice has shaped me into a systems builder by nature—someone who is most at home analyzing complexity, solving problems, and creating things that work in the real world.

I built this curriculum and redesigned my courses from the ground up because students deserve to learn engineering as it is actually practiced: through constraint, iteration, experimentation, failure, and refinement. They deserve real tools, real technical challenges, and the satisfaction that comes from building something functional, meaningful, and their own. Robotnix.dev is the platform I created to make that vision real—a place where computer science, cybersecurity, robotics, and engineering come together through hands-on learning.

Teaching Philosophy

Students learn best by building real things that matter-robots that move, systems that respond, and ideas that solve problems. My classroom blends engineering rigor with creativity, pushing students to think like designers, build like engineers, analyze like technologists, collaborate like teammates, present like professionals, and reflect like lifelong learners. Mistakes are not setbacks-they are feedback.

What Students Can Expect

• Hands-on labs with structured rubrics and reflection.
• Iterative feedback focused on growth, not perfection.
• Curriculum updated for robotics, CS, sustainability, and ethics.
• Opportunities to design, build, present, and compete.
• A classroom that feels like a makerspace, not a lecture hall.

FIRST Robotics (FRC)

I serve as the Head Coach and Lead Mentor for our FIRST Robotics Competition team in the Mid-Atlantic region, guiding students through engineering strategy, robot design/build cycles, software development, scouting and documentation, and match preparation. FRC gives students a place to push their limits, compete with integrity, and learn real engineering workflows under pressure.

Beyond the Classroom

• Developing curricula and resources for Robotnix.dev.
• Running cybersecurity and web security experiments.
• Mentoring independent student projects.
• Building new engineering challenges.
• Learning something new-always.

Other Projects

• Team2180.dev - FRC 2180 resources, build notes, and competition updates.
• MechDraw.org (Coming Soon) - an open-source mechanical design and coursework project for students and teachers.
• GitHub Curriculum Repositories - open-source curriculum, labs, and utilities.
• Snippetz404.dev - code snippets, examples, and technical resources.
• crypthoery.dev - cybersecurity research notes, practical exercises, and learning resources.

Connect

Have a bug to report? Reach out during class, after school, or through the usual channels-I am here to help you create, think, and build with purpose.

Licensing and Use

Robotnix.Dev uses a mixed-license model: original curriculum content is All Rights Reserved; source code is MIT licensed; third-party tools and materials retain their original licenses. See the full license policy.