Our Mentors

Dan Zanone, Mater Dei High School Robotics Head Coach

Mr. Zanone graduated from California State Polytechnic University in Pomona with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering. He is a native Californian, born and raised in San Bernardino. While at Cal Poly, he was a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) and worked as an automotive technician at a major auto repair facility. Just prior to graduation, Mr. Zanone took a position as a Machine Parts Buyer for Northrop Aircraft. After graduating, he worked 11 years in the commercial building industry as a CAD Designer and Estimating Department Supervisor at GAF Corporation. In 2002, he began a 7 year stint as a Project Manager and CAD Designer for a Southern California residential framing company. In the Summer of 2010, Mr. Zanone took several weeks of intensive teacher training for Project Lead the Way – a specialized program that is geared toward raising interest in Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) for high school students. He began his teaching career that Fall and continues to enjoy passing his extensive knowledge on to the future engineers of Orange County. He teaches Introduction to Coding and Robotics & Engineering.

 

Brother Joseph, Mater Dei High School Robotics Coach

Br. Joseph has a bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering from University of Illinois, Chicago and began his career as a firmware engineer with IBM Corp. in Rochester, Minnesota. He delivered quality code for several software releases  and served as the ISO certification chair for his department. He joined the Brothers of St. Patrick becoming a Catholic religious Brother and has been teaching math and science in various Catholic schools in the Diocese of Orange since 2013. He holds a teaching credential through Cal State, Long Beach and a patent in computing peripheral devices. Br. Joseph teaches AP Computer Science A, AP Computer Science Principles, and Intro to Coding classes. He brings his industry and teaching experience as a coach and mentor for the Robotics team. 

 

Mr. Paul Sicking, Retired Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Siemens
Mr. Sicking has over 40 years experience in the development of sophisticated software applications for the engineering community. During his career Paul worked for McDonnell Douglas, Electronic Data Systems (EDS), and Siemens developing 3D CAD, simulation, manufacturing, and data management software products. Paul joined the Mater Dei Robotics mentor team in 2017.