Meet Our Leaders

Maine Robotics Camp Leaders

Maine Robotics has prided ourselves by seeking out high quality camp leaders to run our summer camp programs. We have always wanted to find adult mentors who will bring the best possible experience to the youth who attend our camps. Over the past twenty years we've had everything from engineers to teachers to graduate students who bring their experience and excitement to the camps. Check out a few of our camp leaders here:

Past Camp Leaders

Tom Bickford

Tom started the Maine Robotics Camp Program with the first LEGO Robotics camp back in 2002. Tom has degrees in Biology and Biomedical Engineering and has worked at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill; the University of Texas Health Science Center, the University of Maine in Orono, and now at the University of Southern Maine. He has taught at the Central Maine Community College and Eastern Maine Community College as well as a Maine middle school math and science teacher. Tom first started programming computers in 1979 while still in high school and while he doesn't hold a degree in computer science (there wasn't one offered in Maine when he went to college) he's been programming and building computers for over 40 years. Tom currently oversees all of the camp program and personally teaches in the Build Your Own Computer Program.

Michelle Lane

Michelle earned a BS in Technology Education at USM and became a high school teacher in the fall of 2007, teaching metal working, drafting, and small engines. While looking for a summer job, she was made aware of a LEGO Robotics camp counselor position for Maine Robotics, which has became her summer job since 2008. Michelle loved working with the robots so much, that she started teaching a robotics class at the high school. This helped Michelle create other courses related to robotics, like computer science and engineering and design, which she still teaches at a Windham High School. Michelle has a passion for continuing her education and has earned a Master’s and Educational Specialist degree in Educational Technology from Boise State University. She tries to keep informed about the newest technologies, so she can share with her students and campers.

Ben Goff

Ben graduated from the University of Maine in 2010 with a BS in Computer Science. He started working for Maine Robotics in 2007 as summer camp counselor while he was studying at UMaine. In 2011 he took on the position of summer camp leader. Over the years that he has worked at Maine Robotics he has run camps in Lego robotics, Minecraft programming, 3d printing, and BYOCC (Build Your Own Computers Camps) in various parts of the state. He might not always remember where he is or what is doing but can generally figure it out in less than 30 minutes.

Currently he works for Code Maine, teaching computer programming as an adult-ed course out in Dover-Foxcroft. In his free time he upgrades computers, repairs computers that got broken while being upgraded, and 3d prints cat toys or at least things that become cat toys when the cats find them. He also occasionally takes a break from computer and technology to teach and learn medieval and renaissance fencing styles with the SCA.

Billy Wall

Billy started his working career as a bench technician at the Jacksonville (FL) operation of a regional radio paging company, and worked through a succession of roles and company names until leaving as a network operations manager for Verizon Wireless in Orlando. After more than two decades in telecommunications, he had to answer the question "What do I want to be when I grow up?", and decided to become a math teacher, in part because he remembered how much fun he had working with his crazy junior high school math teacher, who raved about "the beauty of the number system". He moved to Maine, got a mathematics degree at USM, and has been in the classroom ever since, teaching math and coaching math enrichment during the school year, and leading camps for Maine Robotics in the summer. He taught 11 years at Central High School in Corinth, spent a semester at Maine Connections Academy, and is now in the Math Lab at Freeport High School. Amazingly, school districts and Maine Robotics continue to pay him money to have fun working with students!

Kendra Hansen

Kendra Hansen is an audio engineer/audiovisual technician from Orono, Maine. She has worked on the technical side of event production and in recording studios since 2017. She studies at the New England School of Communications, majoring in Audio Engineering and earning a certificate in Live Sound Technology. She has been with Maine Robotics working the camps since 2015, and has worked running several FIRST LEGO League teams over the years. Kendra has a passion for programming and technology and loves that she has the opportunity to share it with others.

Laurette & Dick Darling

Laurette is a retired teacher who taught at every level from kindergarten through fifth grade over 40+ years in Illinois and Maine. She served as a science resource teacher through Colby College, working with more than 80 teachers in Grades 4-6 in the greater Waterville area. She served as President of the Maine Science Teachers Association and received the Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching for grades K-6 in 2010, Dick is a retired environmental/energy engineer who worked for three state agencies, a regional planning agency and two private sector companies during his career. He served for 10 years on the Fayette School Committee. In the 1990’s, their daughter, Bethany, attended a summer camp at First in Manchester, NH. Beth was introduced to Lego Robotics at the camp and Laurette and Dick both saw how excited she was. Laurette vowed to bring Lego Robotics to the students she taught. In 2012, she realized her dream by starting an FLL team at the Albert S. Hall School in Waterville. Three years later, Dick joined her as a mentor/coach for the FLL Team. That evolved to working with Maine Robotics as Summer Camp Counselors for both Lego Robotics and 3D Printing. They run a Robotics “Club” at the Hall School every spring as a “farm team” for the FLL Team in the fall. Four of the FLL teams coached by Laurette & Dick have won awards at the Regional and State Championship FLL Competitions.