Mentors
“If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”
- Isaac Newton
Meet the Team’s GIANTS
OUR MENTORS
Clint Thorne
Lead MentorClint has been mentoring with the Aztechs since the team’s founding in 2012. He has an extensive academic and professional background having done everything from being a college professor, to working as a paleontologist, to being a computer modeler and artist for the film industry. His rich and varied history means that he has a dynamic set of skills that have served the team well over the last 15 years. Currently he is working as a Software Engineer in the functional test industry, working with the robots that test the everyday consumer products we all use.
With the team, he mentors mainly with the software and mechanical design groups, but will throw in wherever he is needed to help the students move projects forward.
Christopher (Chris) Loos
Drive Coach and Mechanical MentorChris Loos joined the Aztechs in the summer of 2019. As a high school student he was a member of Team 1351 TKO (2008-2012). He then went on to study Mechanical Engineering as a Regent Scholar at UC Davis, and has mentored teams continuously since graduating from TKO. He also volunteers his time as a robot inspector at FRC events across the Bay Area. These days, he works as an Opto-Mechanical Design Engineer in the semiconductor industry.
With the Aztechs, he mainly mentors the hardware groups - specifically specializing in mechanical design and fabrication. He's pretty handy with electrical too, just don't ask him to write you any software!
Mercedes Thorne
Mechanical, Electrical and Admin MentorMercedes was one of the founding student members of the team, way back in 2012. Upon graduation, she has continued as a mentor ever since. She taught Technology and Design and ran the Makerspace at Will C Wood Middle School, but after 4 years there they unfortunately ran out of funding for her position, so she moved into industry. Since then, she's worked at some very interesting places and picked up new skills to share with the team at each of them. Currently she is working as a Mechanical Design Engineer in the functional test industry. Basically, she makes robots that do quality control on consumer products. The 2026 season will be her 15th season with the team!
With the Aztechs, she mainly mentors mechanical design and electronics. Additionally, she is one of the team administrators and does a lot with team merch, fundraising, and grant writing.
Maria Thorne
Administrative MentorMaria has been with the Aztechs since the team’s founding in 2012. A retired auto-mechanic, these days she splits her time between being a student and volunteering with FIRST and the team. She is also an avid sewist - spending the last decade plus working with students on the team to develop our reversible bumper system. Each year brings new improvements and innovations to the process, and the team receives a lot of positive attention from judges and other teams alike for our bumpers. Maria is also a fixture at local robotics competitions, usually working as the Pit Administrator. Students on the team have dubbed her both "Bumper Queen" and "Pit-Ad-Mom" as a result. She received the Volunteer of the Year Award at the Pinnacles Regional in 2025!
With the team, she is our main administrator - keeping our paperwork with FIRST in order as well as doing fundraising, grant writing, purchasing, and whatever other tasks might come her way.
Jarek Rettinghouse
Programming MentorJarek has been a mentor with the Aztechs since the start of the 2025 season.
With the team, he is the lead mentor of the software group, collaborating closely with the mechanical and electrical teams to help students translate high-level system requirements into robust, well-structured robot software. His approach centers on teaching strong software architecture and modular design, along with industry-standard practices such as Git workflows. Jarek encourages students to take ownership of their work by designing, testing, and defending their solutions, while emphasizing readability and long-term maintainability over short-term hacks. Across the full software stack, from WPIlib robot code and command-based control systems to vision, autonomous, simulation, and logging, he treats errors as opportunities to learn and improve, even under competition pressure.