Matthew Shane

I am currently studying Computer Science at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, as I have a fascination with writing code that can make projects come to life. I particularly have an interest in Artificial Intelligence, and hope to work on AI projects that improve the lives of people around the world.

For three years during high school I was a member of my school's robotics team, where we collectively designed and built a robot to solve an engineering problem, ultimately facing off against teams from the local area and around the world. During the 2021-2022 season, my team built a robot that can pick up "cargo," launch them into a designed "cargo port" or goal, and hoist itself up to a series of bars to score points in the competition.

My contribution to the robot was mainly in the form of writing code to allow for both manual control of the robot, as well as autonomous control during specific actions. However, I also played a role in the design of certain elements of the robot and in ensuring that members in different departments understood the needs, abilities, and constraints of the team as a whole. During my time as a member of FRC Team 564, I learned valuable communication and engineering skills which I hope to bring with me to my career.

Throughout high school, I enrolled in various courses offered through the Cisco Netacad program in IT repair and networking, and acted as an intern for one of the school's technology education teachers to aide students and repair devices in the school. One of the devices I repaired was a non-functioning printer in a classroom, which had to be disassembled, have several laser scanner assemblies replaced, and put back together, which culminated in a renewed life for the printer and ease-of-use for students in the classroom.