About Us

Our team: Dr. Brucker, Raymond, David, Catherine, Eric, and Rebecca. Photo courtesy Sargunjot Kaur of the Smoke Signal.

We are a group of five students from Mission San Jose High School, in Fremont, CA. Since our sophomore year, our team has competed in various engineering and robotics competitions. On our own, we’ve also done amazing things. We have on our team people who have been to the nationals in Science Bowl and in FIRST; interned in cutting-edge start-ups, and dominated numerous local competitions.

Contact us!

Team Email: funkyshiitakemushrooms@gmail.com

David Cao – Shroomus one-upitus

Being the only one who can legally drive people around, I am the designated team driver whenever our advisor (Mr. Brucker) or our parents cannot drive us. Which happens, oh let’s say, 90% of the time. The trips? Everything from parts needed for the robot, to fundraising runs, chasing (more like driving after) Skittles Mark I as it flew away, and random at-night Jamba Juice runs. In addition, when we got word that Skittles Mark I had landed in Jamestown, the rest of the team yelled “Road trip!” and immediately looked at me for my thoughts on the idea. Besides that, I am also the oldest on the team, though not the strongest academically or with putting together robot parts, especially electronics. That means a lot of the random and more physical work is delegated to me. I also always have my camera on me, and take photos of the meetings, for documentation purposes. There are few things more annoying in the world of documentation when you realize you don’t have photos from a meeting or an event. And I think it is reasonable to say I’m one of the most sane ^.^ I mean seriously, everyone else picked some dangerous or killer mushroom, but I picked the one that gives life! The 1-up mushroom! -smug face-

Trust me though, I do do other things besides work with FSM. I run on our school’s cross country team, and run a weekly small group discussion at my church’s youth group. I also like taking non-documentation photos like Eric. But I think for now, I’ll stay out of the realm of getting commissioned for photography work.

Eric Chin – Amanita exitalis

Being the R/C and prototyping “director” and on the electronics department of our team, I’m the opposite of David. Everything I do is crazy; from very quick prototype setups to nicely done wiring jobs, I always pick the most efficient way. From midnight soldering jobs by flashlight in my room since I’m supposed to be asleep for a test tomorrow to using sharp objects…dangerously close to myself… haha. I’m one of the team geeks. I direct a lot of the technical and design aspects of the team, in cooperation with Raymond down there. I’m the technical director of the hardware side of the team, and am usually the crazy one soldering stuff to our blimp and configuring everything. I’m self diagnosed OCD. XD Which is a great benefit and negative. Sure, I get things done in the long run and it looks great, but I’m my OCD doesn’t kick in, then I can be quite the messy person. Or, maybe I’ll waste my time straightening stickers. Being asian…and crazy….I picked the asian destroying angel as my mushroom. RAWR. Knives, hemostats and fire are great fun and gifts of said objects are greatly appreciated.

When I’m not working on out crazy blimp hardware, I’m playing badminton or taking pictures. I play competitive badminton, although I’m decent at best, and am technically a professional photographer. RAWR. COMMISSIONS ARE VERY MUCH WELCOME XDDD.

Catherine Lu – Amanita muscaria

Hi! I’m Catherine! And I’m the normal one of the group. I’ve only done robotics these two years with FSM and a year before with Odyssey of the Mind, but I’ve learned a ton. I spend meetings making ghetto stuff THAT WORKS. Anyways, I also participate in Science Bowl and other various nerdy stuff that allow me to miss school ^^

Since my bio’s a bit too lame for Rebecca, she wrote something for me below:
“Obviously the most attractive of the team (you can tell by the mushroom I picked – it resembles me remarkably closely), I bring beauty, brains and brawn to the team (I make up for the guys). Although not as electrically inclined/crazy as Raymond or Eric, I would say that I am pretty sane and can hold my own when dealing with power tools. Unfortunately, I’m not very good at making things look clean, so the joints I cut or the parts I connect don’t look the best. And then Rex gets mad at me . Also, don’t ever be my lab partner in chem because my hands are really shaky, rendering me virtually useless for fine hand-eye coordination requiring work. I always wear flip-flops and get my hair cut periodically so that it remains weirdly layered, all half-wavy and stuff. And I have a cute dog named Matt.”

Rebecca Xing aka Rex – Amanita virosa

To put it simply, I am the coolest of the bunch. As shown by the mushroom that symbolizes me, the Destroying Angel, I am both innocent-looking and deadly. Don’t let your first impressions fool you — I will reign supreme. I’m the right side of the team’s brain – I provide the more imaginative aspects of the team (including the team name, which Catherine helped with). I enjoy writing, taking photos, and getting my hands dirty. I’ve got decently good hand-eye coordination, which was developed through years of playing video games (but I dislike first-person shooters greatly). My technical skills are not up to par with Eric’s, but I can solder decently well and am good at putting things together and solving problems. I am, however, very loyal to the team and make it a point to be at every meeting, even when I should be studying for APs or finals.

Raymond Zhong – Leucocoprinus birnbaumii

Hello there, I’m Raymond. I’m the only person now on the team who wasn’t one of the original Funky Shiitake Mushrooms from 2008; now I’m a technical lead and team strategist. I work on awesome projects: everything that’s elegant, timeless, and inspiring. You can think of me as a serial entrepreneur in high school, except I do far cooler things than making shirts and selling things. Instead, I make websites like this one, and sell robots (figuratively) to our FIRST Robotics team’s sponsors, figuratively, of course.

When I’m not FSMing, you can find me playing sports like cross country and quiz bowl. Over the summer, I work at UC Berkeley, where I hunt quadracopters and interrogate them for microcontroller code.

Dr. Charlie Brucker

Our advisor Dr. Brucker has a Ph.D. in Engineering Physics from Cornell University. Before teaching, he worked for Xerox, Eastman Kodak and Seagate Technology, with experience as a materials scientist, technical group leader and manager. Dr. Brucker and his wife (also a teacher in Fremont), enjoy spending time with their two children and many pets. When he is not teaching, he also enjoys basketball, competitive cycling and running, and he has completed both the Boston and NYC marathons.