We're a community of students on a journey to learn through making hands-on projects.
We are tinkerers, creative thinkers, and problem solvers. We are future scientists, engineers, architects, and artists. What brings us all together is that we are all makers.
We created Student Makers to bring together student makers from all disciplines and provide them with hands-on workshops, funding for projects, and most importantly, a community where they can share their projects and collaborate with others. Today, we serve student makers from secondary schools all across the United States.
Team
Executive Board
Dilan Mehta is currently a senior at Hinsdale Central High School in Illinois. He gained the attention of Student Makers through his award-winning shape-shifting Rubik's Cube design, which landed him the role of Lead Instructor for the Student Makers 3D Printing Workshop Series. During his three years serving this position, Dilan expanded the program's enrollment and built its entire curriculum around Fusion 360, an advanced modeling software. The most rewarding part for him is seeing his students combine their new knowledge with their innate creativity to develop unique design projects. Currently, Dilan serves as the Executive Director of Student Makers. Under this title, he has launched a Python coding class and an initiative to design and 3D print 1,000 lego sets and other toys for Kenyan orphans.
Outside of Student Makers, Dilan spent two years as an intern at MxD, a government-funded corporation focused on cybersecurity and digital manufacturing. In addition, he 3D printed and donated nearly five hundred face shields to those in need during the pandemic under Makers for COVID-19 non-profit. Through school, he participates in Student Council and Math Team. Dilan plans on furthering his passion for innovation by pursuing engineering.
Dilan Mehta
Nathan is a second year studying business administration at UC Berkeley. His interests include investing in equities and decentralized finance.
In high school, Nathan was heavily involved with tutoring at his school, where he helped prepare students for the SAT, ACT, AP European history test and AP Statistics test. Currently, Nathan is working at an investment firm in San Francisco which specializes in high growth technology companies.
By serving as Director of Finances at Student Makers, Nathan hopes to bring the love of technology and discovery to students and create a new generation of designers, makers and entrepreneurs.
Nathan Lee
Conor is studying mechanical and nuclear engineering at UC Berkeley.
During his time at Ohlone Community College, he founded a club which brought together students with hands-on STEM projects and workshops. Alongside other students, Conor worked on projects focusing on skills development, including 3D printed COVID face shields, an electric hand sanitizer, and supporting the second annual college hackathon.
He is interested in 3D-printing, arduino projects, photography, and high voltage electronics, and looks forward to collaborating and learning with other makers. As Director of Learning at Student Makers, he is excited to meet new makers, share knowledge, and promote the "learn by doing" mindset that is integral to the maker movement.
Conor Van Bibber
Armaan is a second-year studying Molecular and Cell Biology and intending to major in Business Administration at UC Berkeley. In high school, he volunteered in a nonprofit called Pacific STEM where he would help teach underrepresented students several STEM topics such as genetics, algebra, and physics. Armaan was responsible for helping teach the lesson plan and publicize the program to the community. Currently, he is the Co-founder of another UC Berkeley organization called Biocycles at Berkeley which focuses on creating medical projects to donate to children’s hospitals and to create a community of like minded individuals centered on the applications of technology and medicine in business.
As Assistant Director of Learning at Student Makers, he is excited to help create new learning modules, teach other new ideas, and to inspire other people to follow their maker dreams.
Armaan Nangia
Tat is a junior majoring in architecture and intending to minor in sustainable design at UC Berkeley. She is serving as the Director of Making at Student Makers.
In middle and high school back in Thailand, she spent most of her time in the workshop designing and making different things. In her high school, she also co-founded a plastic recycling club, which hosts engaging activities for students to educate them about design and sustainability. Many of their hands-on projects focused on turning plastic waste into new functional products.
Tat enjoys hands-on making projects, especially woodworking and using all kinds of machines! She is looking forward to learning more about Arduino, circuits, and new skills from other makers in the community, which then could be used to develop product and human-centered design. But most importantly, she is excited to meet and help young students to grow into future designers and makers!
Tat Srethbhakdi
Community Committee
.jpg)
Rishay is currently a junior at Gunn High School. He was first introduced to unmanned flight when he was eight, and since then, the prospect of flight without a human’s presence or input has piqued his interest in aviation. Rishay started out building radio-controlled planes but soon discovered quadcopters. In eighth grade, his school gave a year-long assignment to learn a challenging new skill. Inspired by Zipline, a company using drones to deliver medical supplies to inaccessible parts of Rwanda, he built a delivery drone with a release mechanism that could drop a package. His project is now an example for future students.
Building his first quadcopter opened a world of using unmanned aircraft to benefit society, and next, he wanted to explore drones that can fly themselves. Recently, he created an autonomous quadcopter that is capable of flying itself using a powerful autopilot technology called Pixhawk. In the future, he aims to do autonomous data collection with drones. Now Rishay serves as the Activities lead on the Youth Council, working to create new and exciting opportunities. His goal for the semester is to bring collaboration to the virtual maker space.
Rishay Jain
Gregory is a 12th-grade high school student at Metwest High School. Engineering has been his passion with prior engineer experience in laser cutting and robotics.
In 9th grade, he attended an engineering-based internship Called the Hi-Tech Makers. There he learned how to use laser cutters, design different robots with Littlebits, and create video games. He also studied the Engineering design process thoroughly. From brainstorming creative ideas to testing multiple prototypes, Gregory had a good deal of hands-on experience with engineering and is highly considering pursuing engineering as a college major or future profession.
In his free time, Gregory enjoys playing video games, filming and editing short videos, and working on small hardware projects such as building computers and modding keyboards. extremely motivated to constantly grow and strives to be better, Gregory is excited to work together with his fellow students.
Gregory Pang
Learning Committee
Neha is a senior at South Brunswick High School. Since middle school, she has taught herself several programming languages, including Java, Python, HTML/CSS/JS, and C. She is currently an Arduino Programming Workshop Instructor at Student Makers.
When she discovered Arduino and microcontroller programming, she began to create several lighting projects for herself and her friends. She is a Python and Web Development instructor and curriculum developer for middle schoolers. She also learned how to make 3D prints at her local library, and her projects include a vehicle for Science Olympiad, as well as a maze cube (which no one has been able to solve yet!). As a member of the South Brunswick Science Olympiad team, which has won top 5 in New Jersey, and an avid maker, she’s excited to help other students expand their knowledge through Student Makers workshops!
Neha Peddinti
Xieshi is a junior at Arizona College Prep High School and a workshop co-instructor in Student Makers. At school, he is the hardware lead of the school's environmental club project EcoClamp. In his free time, he is an electronics hobbyist who has worked on several projects involving electronic circuits, 3D design, and coding.
Some of his notable projects include a functional universal testing machine, microcontroller-powered keypad, custom 3D printer, and electronic dice. Several of these projects are made open-source through Instructables and have won multiple Instructables contests. Additionally, he is the co-author of a published scientific paper based on his experiments with his universal testing machine and 3D printer.
Xieshi has been an active member ever since he joined Student Makers, participating regularly in opportunities and meetings. This year, he is excited to share his knowledge in electronics with student makers through the Arduino workshop!
Xieshi Zhang
Nicholas first became interested in robotics during his three-year involvement in FIRST LEGO League Challenge, a series of competitive events where students design a robot using LEGOs and create a skit surrounding a specific real-world problem. When he wasn't putting time into robotics, he was studying entrepreneurship at his school, eventually going on to win his school's first entrepreneurial competition later that year. As a result of his dedication to his work both in school and during his extracurricular activities, he was nominated to become a member of the National Junior Honor Society and eventually became The Sanibel School's official liaison.
Once he graduated from his middle school, he continued down his entrepreneurial path and became a member of Future Business Leaders of America, representing his school during the club's country-wide event. Once quarantine began, Nicholas began searching for ways to spend his time, leading him to Student Makers' Arduino course. With his prior knowledge in the robotics field, and with the new skills he picked up in last years' Arduino course, Nicholas found a position as a Co-Instructor in this semester's Arduino course.
Nicholas Underwood
Pradyota attends Round Rock High School as a junior. He joined the very first virtual 3D-printing workshop at Student Makers and is now a Co-Instructor, hoping to pass on his 3D-Printing expertise to others.
He also works with Kumon North America Inc as a part-time educator and with international organizations such as SEWA International. In his free time, Pradyota volunteers his time at homeless shelters and food banks to give back to the community. One of the projects on which he worked was to create a system enabling homeless pregnant women to receive the required goods for planned parenthood.
He wants to be an Astronomer and study and help explore the universe when he grows up. He also enjoys taking photos, particularly of galaxies. He enjoys watching soccer and Formula 1.
Pradyota Phaneesh
Mukunth Hemanth Kumar is currently a sophomore In Mountain House High School in California. During his elementary and middle school years, he was interested in designing and also creating 3D models in Tinkercad and Fusion 360 and was also doing web designing as well.
He was interested in 3D printing, and took part in the Science Olympiad team in 8th grade and did the event Write It Cad It and got first place in the state level. He wanted to take his skills further which is when he discovered Student Makers through a friend. He attended the Sudent Makers 3DP Workshop and grew fond of the sessions.
Later, he became part of Student Makers as part of the marketing committee and now he serves as a 3D Printing Co-Instructor on the learning committee. He is excited to learn and educate himself about 3D printing in depth and is happy to help others and share his experience and knowledge. He is excited to teach many people who have a passion for 3D printing and is looking forward to all the sessions.
Mukunth H. Kumar
Parsa is 18 years old and a freshman at UC Berkeley. He has been 3D printing for 5 years, using both Tinkercad and Fusion 360. He has won 6 Instructables design contests, 2 of which have been grand prizes!
He is also an Autodesk Certified Associate in CAD for Mechanical Design. His favorite part about 3D printing is bringing his creations to life; with the right tools and resources, there is truly no limit to what you can create.
Parsa Ansari
Rohan Nagale is a sophomore at Lyons Township High School in Illinois. He has been interested in 3D printing for many years, ever since receiving one for Christmas in 5th grade.
Rohan completed the 3D Printing Student Makers Workshop Series in 2021, and was inspired to become one of the instructors. Last year, he shared his 3D printing knowledge and experiences with a school in a rural village in India via Google Meets along with Dilan and Pradyota.
Rohan also participates in multiple extracurriculars including robotics, math, MUN, and volunteering at a local food pantry.
Rohan Nagale
Ben Arnold is currently a Senior at Palmer Trinity School. In middle school, he discovered a passion for building and founded the Palmer Trinibots Robotics Club, where he led the team to finish 46th place in the world at the VexIQ World Robotics competition in Kentucky. As a freshman, Ben set his sights on solar cars and joined the Solar Car Club with a goal of building a full sized solar powered car to compete in the FGCU Solarchase race. After a last place finish, Ben became the president of the club in 10th grade and started the process of rebuilding the car from the ground up. In his sophomore year, Ben founded the STE3M Club to focus on competitions encompassing Science, Technology, Engineering, Environment, Entrepreneurship and Math. The club entered the NASA Growing Beyond Earth Maker Competition and won first place in the high school division for their box to grow lettuce on the International Space Station. They are now competing in the next phase to fully automate the growing and harvesting process. It is in this competition where Ben met Anthony and got involved with Student Makers. Ben is an avid gardener and would love to be a pioneer in the future of food production in space. He is excited to share his love for gardening this semester in the Hydroponic Gardening workshop as the Lead Instructor.
Ben Arnold
Ernesto is intending on double majoring in Business and Plant Biology & Genetics at UC Berkeley. Throughout high school, Ernesto had been involved in Robotic classes and had joined the Robotics Club in its first year. Along with having a passion for technology, Ernesto also had a large interest in Business. Since there were no business classes offered at his high school, he was fortunate enough to attend the Stanford Pre-Collegiate Summer Institutes Program in the Summer of 2019 for Business & Entrepreneurship. Inspired by the talented leaders he had networked with in the program, his senior year he had created the Business & Finance Club, the first and only business resource offered on campus.
Coming from an agricultural town, Ernesto is also interested in plant biology and everything that has to do with growing biological matter(plants, mushrooms, algae, compost). Ernesto is inspired by regenerative and sustainable agriculture practices and hopes to impact the industry by integrating more technology when it comes to traditional farming. Ernesto remains eager to not only learn more but to help others especially when it comes to their interest in science.
Ernesto Garcia
Making Committee
Lizzy is a sophomore majoring in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at UC Berkeley. In her free time, she likes to design and make many different things, ranging from robotics to fashion design. She likes tinkering and creating her own projects. In high school, she took part in creative problem solving competitions that opened her eyes to the design world. She has placed internationally in competitions such as Odyssey of the Mind and RoboCup, and is now working with the organizers of the latter to bring the innovation experience to more people around the world.
Lizzy is excited to learn from the rest of the committee, and to work with them to create a beautiful experience for others like her!
Lizzy Wang
Serena Zhang is a second-year Architecture major and a Sustainable Design minor at UC Berkeley. Besides her major, She is passionate about interaction design with an emphasis on user interface and graphic design.
As a new member of the Making Committee, she hopes to contribute her artistic and design talents through various projects and services at the Student Makers.
At Cal, she is also currently the head of the US design team at DECODE, one of the largest tech and innovation conferences within the bay area, entrepreneurship DeCal course advisor for INDENG 198: DECODE Silicon Valley Startup Success, and production designer at The Daily Californian. Her favorite color is violet and she loves to watch horror movies.
Serena (Si-Wen) Zhang
Sushil Bohara is a second-year pursing a Bioengineering major and a Data Science minor at UC Berkeley.
In high school, Sushil's exposure to variuous competitions and key mentors allowed him to pursue his major. This paved way for his ambitions in improving clinical methods in the medical field. He wishes to embody the mentorship he was once provided and provide guidance to the next generation of innovaters.
Sushil is excited to learn, meet phenomenal new people, and create awesome projects!
Sushil Bohara
Joseph is a student at UC Berkeley fascinated with urban technology and startups and is exploring that through studying a mix of computer science, business, and sustainable environmental design!
Having participated in and organized hackathons, pitch competitions, and maker events for years, he has experience in countless skills, including UI/UX design, prototyping, Arduino, video production, decking, 3D printing, programming, and more! He’s excited to continue creating and ideating through this community and help future generations of innovators explore the world of making, especially within the urbantech and cleantech space!
Joseph Chen
Christina is a Cognitive Science major at UC Berkeley. She furthers her passion in the intersection of design innovation and technology through Data Science and Sustainable Design minors, and the Berkeley Certificate in Design Innovation. Outside of academics, she is mingling with peers from Design at Berkeley and Invention Corps, fostering the design community at Cal.
Having experience in visual design, 3D prototyping, and user interface design, she is excited to mentor projects from ideation to creation that bring people together through the digital and physical space.
Christina Kan
Britney is a 3rd year pursuing Sustainable Environmental Design and minoring in City Planning and Geographic Information Systems. She is interested in climate adaptation and resiliency, as well as affordable housing efforts.
Currently mentoring as a Y-Plan Mentor for Skyline High in Oakland, she helps young planners with educational equity and the charette process. She is excited to help inspire the same passion for environmental resiliency and sustainability within this new generation of designers and planners.
Britney Tran
Shayne is a Junior transfer studying Art Practice and looking to pursue a minor in sustainable design at UC Berkeley. He considers himself a visually creative person with a passion for fashion and art.
During his time at his community college, he practiced arts with various media in forms of photography, videography, animation, and installation. His art practice gained acknowledgement from Parsons and USC and he was granted admissions to their undergraduate design programs. Through his involvement in his previous club, he was able to lead his officers to partner with a transfer institute to help more transfer students gain insight into the college application process and beyond.
Besides arts, Shayne is taking classes about 3D modeling and coding for his interest in computer science and intending to integrate arts and fashion with computing language. At last, Shayne can’t wait to meet more like-minded makers, and work with them to build more interesting projects.
Shayne Huang
Advisory Board
Gerie is the Chief Operations Officer of WIN USA Education, an educational company that hosts S.T.E.A.M. maker camps at elementary and middle schools. In this role, she supervises several classes each summer and winter. These maker camps teach hands-on activities such as mechanical slot cars and electrical circuits, a curriculum designed to spark the creativity of students behind in school. She also serves as a WIN USA Education coach for the Telesis Academy of Science & Math Middle School Science Olympiad team. If you drop in at one of their after-school research/build sessions, you can find students tinkering with electronics like hard-core engineers.
Outside of work, she is an active community member who constantly searches for ways to improve education. Through serving as a Board member of Student Makers, she hopes to engage educators in the movement towards more hands-on education.
Education: B.S. in Finance and Marketing from the University of Southern California (1989-1993) and MBA in Finance and Technology from the University of Phoenix (2001-2003).
Gerie Wang
Anthony is a biotech professional with a degree in bioengineering from UC Berkeley. During his senior year of high school, Anthony assembled a team of student makers and together they hosted a school-wide maker event: Maker Week, a week of student-run workshops teaching hands-on projects. Several events followed and in 2019, Anthony founded Student Makers (formerly the Maker Hub Club Initiative) and became the top recipient of the HonorsGradU "Design A Better Future" challenge where he was awarded a grant to expand his reach. He served as Executive Director of Student Makers previously. He looks forward to supporting the ever-growing community of student makers participating in Student Makers programs.
Other notable achievements include becoming a 2018 CIRM SPARK fellow (stem cell research at Caltech and Pathways to Stem Cell Science), being the 2019 recipient of the RHS Hall of Fame scholarship, and leading a collegiate team that won NASA's Growing Beyond Earth maker contest. (Fun fact: Anthony’s hobby of gardening led him to host several succulent workshops at RHS, which helped him come up with the idea of maker workshops!)
Anthony Neil Tan
Acknowledgements
_edited.jpg)
_edited.jpg)
Akshar Raikanti
-
Former 3D Printing
Co-Instructor -
2 years of experience teaching 3D printing to middle school students
-
4 years of 3D printing experience
-
Fun fact: I'm a half-marathon runner!
Grace Hu
Krishiv Haranath
Shefali Sastry
-
Former Marketing Lead
-
Creator of online clothing brand Pockets4People
-
First place winner in the Perlman Price Young Entrepreneurs Program
-
Fun Fact: I'm a YMCA National Swimming Championships Finalist
-
Former 3D Printing
Co-Instructor -
2 years of experience teaching 3D printing
-
Speech and debate instructor for middle schoolers and elementary schoolers
-
Former Arduino Programming Co-Instructor
-
Data Scientist at Nextdoor
-
Former Program Lead, Avionics Engineer at Space Enterprise at Berkeley
-
Education: B.S. in Information Systems at UC Berkeley (2016-2020)
Nathan Jong
-
Former Maker Hub Club Youth Council Chair
-
Former Maker Workshops Instructor
-
Certified SOLIDWORKS Associate
-
2019 SourceAmerica Design Challenge National Finalist
Alessandra Ong
Yaxuan Sun
Aadhav Prabu
-
Former Maker Hub Club Youth Council Vice Chair
-
Resin jewelry hobbyist
-
Author of RHS Maker Week blog post
-
Former Workshop Series Curriculum Contributor
-
UC Berkeley Mechanical Engineering undergrad conducting research on computed axial lithography (CAL) - volumetric 3D printing
-
Visit her website here
-
Former 3D Printing Lead Instructor
-
Founded Windemere Ranch Middle School's 3D Printing Club
-
6 years of 3D printing experience
-
Software Intern and TA at the California Tamil Academy
Cathleen Chen
Athena Leong
-
Former Student Makers Youth Council Vice Chair
-
Founder of Diamond Bar High School's Maker Hub Club chapter
-
Top Five Team in SourceAmerica's Design Challenge
-
Fun Fact: I love Harry Potter!
-
Former Student Makers Youth Council Chair
-
UC Berkeley Computer Science undergraduate
-
Part of Mobile Developers at Berkeley developing apps for businesses
-
Former Leader at Eunoia Junior College's electronics club
Adrian Gore
Miles Nash
-
Former 3D Printing
Co-Instructor -
2 years of 3D Printing experience
-
Fun Fact: I love to play chess and I like running in my free time
-
Former Making Committee Member
-
Invented smart home gadgets viewed by
50,000 online -
Spent 3 years interning for Lockheed Martin Space
-
Fun Fact: I developed prototypes in partnership with NASA!