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Team Mentors

Our TriSonics Mentors

Headshot of Chad

Chad Potinsky

Head Coach / Design Mentor

Chad Potinsky is the head mentor for Allendale Robotics and has been a FIRST Mentor since 2002 (starting on Holland C.H.A.O.S.- Team 74). In 2010 he formed an FLL team and FLL Jr team in Allendale and, in 2012, he founded our FRC Team – 4003: The TriSonics. During the day, he is an Advanced Manufacturing Engineer working for ODL in Zeeland, MI.
chad@allendalerobotics.com
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Doug Diephouse

Assistant Design Mentor

Doug has been a part of the TriSonics and HexaSonics since 2017. He works at JR Automation, who has been one of our sponsors for many years. He works in pricing there, and helps out with the design subteam. He is very ready and willing to help wherever is needed.
DDiephouse@jrautomation.com
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Aaron Dana

Build Mentor

Aaron joined the TriSonics in the 2018 FRC Season. He comes from one of our awesome sponsors, Standale Lumber. Aaron is the Lead Mentor on our Build team and is working on becoming one of our machinist mentors!
Aaron.dana@ambassadorsupply.com
Headshot of Dale

Dale Van Lopik

Fabrication Mentor

Dale Van Lopik is the Fabrication Mentor and has been with the FRC Team – 4003 since it’s inception in 2012. Dale and Chad worked together on the Holland Chaos Team for a number of seasons until Chad convinced Dale to join him in the creation of the new Allendale team. Outside of Robotics, Dale works at Miller-Knoll in Muskegon as the Sr. Manufacturing Engineer, and in his spare time enjoys sailing and camping.
dale_vanlopik@knoll.com
Headshot of Ethan

Ethan Potinsky

Design Mentor

Ethan is a new design mentor on the Trisonics. He had been a student in the Allendale Robotics programs for 9 years before that: 3 years in FLL with DROID, 2 years in FTC with the HexaSonics, team 7023, and 4 years in FRC with the Trisonics. After graduating high school in 2019, Ethan pursued a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering at Michigan Technological University. After graduating from MTU in 2023, Ethan began his career at Gentex Corporation as a Product Design Engineer.
ejpotins@mtu.edu
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Tom Zuniga

Assistant Build and Design Mentor

Tom joined the TriSonics team in 2022. He is a Co-owner and Project Leader for E3, which is also one of our sponsors. His background is in Architecture, Structural Engineering and Water filtration systems. Although robotics is new to him, he enjoys helping and guiding the students wherever needed.
tom.zuniga@e3integrated.com
Trevor

Trevor Keur

Design/Build Mentor

Trevor is a new mentor to the team but a veteran of the program. Trevor has been with the program for 10 years through Jr FLL, FLL, FTC, and FRC. He is a sophomore at Ferris State University studying Manufacturing Engineering. He uses those skills helping the Design and Build sub teams.
trevorkeur59@gmail.com

Tonya Dowd

Female Mentor for The Girls

Tonya Dowd coordinates all of the food for our competitions and Saturday lunches. She also schedules our hotels for our competitions and anything that needs to be done behind the scenes. She is also am a female mentor for the girls and anything they need.
jdowd5153@gmail.com
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James Dowd

Programming Mentor

James has been with the Trisonics since 2015 helping mentor programming and controls, and assisting my wife in being “team mom”. I’m a retired chemical engineer with a bit of a background in control system integration. As a father of 4, all of my kids have been in the program and our family loves Allendale Robotics!
jdowd5152@gmail.com
Headshot of Ethan

Ethan Dowd

Programming team and Wiring team

Ethan is a recent graduate of Michigan State University, with a degree in Electrical Engineering and a Minor in Computer Science. I’m a Trisonics alumni, this will be my first year mentoring the Programming team and Wiring team.
enddowd5154@gmail.com
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Justin Buist

Programming Mentor

Justin has been with the TriSonics since 2015. During the day he is a stay at home dad and part time student at GVSU. Justin spends his time with TriSonics students teaching them to program our robots, scouting applications, and data analytics tools. That should do.
justin.buist@gmail.com

Elijah Hagber

Programming Mentor

Elijah was a member of both the Hexasonics and Trisonics as a programming member and returned as a mentor in 2023 to help out with both programming and wiring. Elijah is also an FTA for both FTC and FRC.
ehagberg@ehagberg.com

Jeremy Scott

Build Mentor

Jeremy Scott is a 3rd Year mentor with the TriSonics, with 11 years of robot coaching experience. He’s a Senior Automation Controls Engineer at JR Automation in Holland, where he’s been working since 1999. He’s an Avid Disc Golfer and a lifelong Detroit Lions fan.
jeremyscott77@gmail.com

About Us

Allendale Robotics is a robotics program located in Allendale, MI. Our goal is to provide quality programs for all students grades K-12. On our teams, younger students are coached by parent volunteers and out older age students are mentored by professionals that teach them the fundamentals of the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics programs. We hold our students to the highest standards, and value community outreach and volunteer work. We equip our students with the knowledge to succeed after high school in whatever career choice they choose. If your student loves to learn and is always curious – an Allendale Robotics program may be the right fit for them!

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