Prime Examples of: Teamwork
Prime is a quantity.
Unique, a product unachievable by any two other numbers. 2, 3, 13 …
Prime is a quality.
Excellent, of the highest caliber. Outstanding, Choice, Top-Notch…
In both quantity and quality, this column features Prime Examples of what makes us Florida Tech.
Teamwork is done by a group acting together toward a common goal—winning a game, acing a class project, saving the world. Meant to boost efficacy, working as a team might not always be the easy way. It requires communication, cooperation, synergy. But while simultaneous individual contributions often will, in fact, improve efficiency, a team is almost always greater than the sum of its parts. The magic of teamwork is in its byproducts: perspective, interaction, relationship.
Panthers are team players, and at Florida Tech, we are teeming with teamwork: opportunities to learn, serve, grow—together.
Here are a few Prime Examples.
2 Philanthropic Partnerships
CA Wildfire Aid
On Feb. 7, College of Aeronautics students Diego Teixeira and Blaise Pasquier departed for Los Angeles to deliver aid to victims of the wildfires that raged across the area most of January, claiming 30 lives and destroying thousands of homes and buildings. Teixeira and Pasquier transported and delivered 800 pounds of clothes and essential goods to the ImpactLA nonprofit, spending a total 13 hours in flight. With the $2,000 they had left, the students took two families who had lost their homes in the fire shopping.
Dominican Republic Service Trip
Five College of Engineering and Science students, accompanied by the Rev. Randall Meissen, Florida Tech chaplain and Campus Catholic Ministry director, spent part of their winter break on a humanitarian service trip to the central mountainous region of the Dominican Republic. In the rural village of Los Guayuyos, sophomores Bailey Astor, Elias Orellana and Matt Barfield and first-year students Jacob Ewasko and Aydyn Jones joined with local community members Jan. 5–11 to install a sustainable, low maintenance, gravity-fed water system designed to provide clean water to the village. The project’s approach centered on community involvement and awareness to ensure the water system could be easily maintained and repaired by village residents while also seeking to instill a sense of ownership and solidarity among them.
3 Senior Design Projects
PROJECT VULCAN
TEAM MEMBERS: Timur Bedelbaev, Braden Hartlieb, Micéle Leita, Matthew Poirier, Jorge Sanchez, Abigail Smith, Joshua Spectre, Cam’Ron Valliere, Victor Z
Aerospace, Physics and Space Sciences
Winner of the President’s Cup, this team created a proof-of-concept metal 3D-printed clustered chambered aerospike engine featuring an integrated Liquid-Injected Thrust Vector Control (LITVC). Developed with Vaya Space and its Dauntless vehicle, this innovation supports sustainable, affordable space access for small satellite launches.
KITCHENSYNC
TEAM MEMBERS: Chris Nederhoed, Tyler Son, David Tran
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
This team created KitchenSync, a smart pantry and meal-planning desktop application for inventory management, recipe discovery and meal planning. Designed for home cooks, busy families and students, the app offers seamless inventory tracking with manual entry, barcode scans or receipt uploads; organization by location and custom tags; comprehensive recipe management for creating, storing and sharing recipes, nutrition data and flavor pairing; intelligent meal planning and “What Can I Cook Now?” functions based on real-time inventory; and more.
PROJECT B.E. D.R.I.P.
TEAM MEMBERS: Elizabeth Arrajj, Elijah Doan, Marguerite Fidd, Parker Hathaway, Gabriel Kuntz, Lindsey Shapiro, Callie Siering
Mechanical and Civil Engineering
Winner of Best in Show for Civil Engineering and Construction Management, this team installed sensors and cameras to gather data on flooding issues and erosion control problems in the Joy and Gordon Patterson Botanical Garden. Members have proposed civil engineering and construction solutions, including a living shoreline and rain garden, to minimize the need for hard infrastructure and costly maintenance. Professor Gordon Patterson, one-half of the garden’s namesake, donated $1,000 of the royalties from his book, Missiles, Mischief And Mayhem: The Secret History of Florida Tech, to help fund the project.
13 Competitors
As part of Florida Tech’s 37 Hours of Giving, 13 teams participated in the inaugural Panther Paddle March 8, racing cardboard boats across the pool at Panther Aquatic Center while rival teams sabotaged them with squirt guns. Winning teams received awards for first through third place, as well as Best Design, which took into account boat construction, theme, name and creativity.
1. S.S. Kiss – First Place
Liana Van Woesik, Steven Holmberg and Anna Grimm
2. Will is the Way – Second Place; Best Design
Representing Panther volleyball: Lexi Lueger, Kari Voelstad Bogen, Jeanne Hassoun and Tessa Mati
3. Freeling Lucky – Third Place
Representing women’s soccer: Katie Ormerod, Emme Henkel, Sofia Posner and Lyneth Restrepo
4. Hull Yeah
Nihaara Sawhney, Jackson Moxley, Juan Salazar Zurita, Susan Nelson
5. Ship Happens
Kendra Tiger, John Fonseca, Jennavive Nelson, Gabrielle Yeager
6. The Water Panthers
Representing men’s/women’s swimming: Matteo Caruso, Joshua Cajust, Mo Olhasso, Landon Best
7. She-Hulk
Grace Gamage, Dr. Amanda Moske
8. FIT WBB
Nadine Johnson, Dalma Ehmann, Lana Ammash, Kyandra Poitier
9. YAY-SME
Carys Daly, Karissa Hawk, Isaac Weisbroad, Brandon Byrne
10. USS Brad
George Nehma, Niall Harris, Shane Hall
11. Holy Grail
Ryan Walker, Clayton Wiseman, Sam Newton
12. Sea Ya Later
Bella Mendoza, Chloe Caldrich, Nick Santamaria, Johann Vennick
13. No Race Scheduled
Mary Penny, Lily Penny, Vincent Wright, Carys Napier
This piece was featured in the spring 2025 edition of Florida Tech Magazine.
