Q&A WITH WINSTON GRENEIR, CLASS OF 2013 ORIGINAL OWLBOTS TEAM MEMBER

Winston, a member of the original robotics team, was kind enough to answer questions for us about his experience at The Woods Academy and what he does now. Below you’ll get a chance to hear from him about his experience!

What is your job?

I am an Applied Research Software Engineer at Strategy Robot, a company that applies computational game theory to real-world problems.

I am currently working on a project to develop AI for the board game ‘Diplomacy’ with the hope that eventually these AIs can assist with real diplomatic negotiations. Each day I improve the code of our AI, review experiment results to see what worked, and collaborate with other team’s on the project so that our AIs can play together.

When did you know you wanted to be a software engineer?

I enjoyed programming for the Woods robotics team and taking computer science courses in high school so I knew I wanted to continue programming as a career.

What role did The Woods play in helping you in the STEM field?

I enjoyed my science classes at The Woods and was excited to participate in the robotics team.

DID YOU KNOW?

The 2013 Owlbots team competed in the Maryland First Lego League Championship at the UMBC Retriever Activities Center in 2013? The Owlbots finished Third Overall out of 72 teams overall. Teams were

You were a part of the first robotics team at The Woods – the 2010 OwlBots team. What do you remember from that?

I remember waking up way too early for competitions, building cool robots, and having fun working with the team.

Where did you go to high school? Did you continue with robotics? What else did you do in high school that prepared you for your job today?

I went to Poolesville High School in the Science, Math, and Computer Science magnet program which gave me the opportunity to take lots of advanced STEM classes. I did continue with robotics. In high school we had engineering classes that gave me practice solving real problems and did an internship in the summer before 12th grade that prepared me for college research internships.

What was your experience at Carnegie Mellon University? What was your major?

I double majored in Computational Biology and Computer Science and got a Fifth Year Masters in Machine Learning. I really enjoyed my time at Carnegie Mellon. I loved the Theoretical Computer Science class (15-251) where I worked with an amazing group on very difficult but interesting homework problems. I loved that class so much I was a teaching assistant for it for 7 semesters.

What advice would you give our students and younger alumni about getting into the STEM field? STEM is fun but can be difficult, so be prepared to invest a lot of time in learning. Don’t be afraid to ask for help!

What had an impact on you at The Woods?

The robotics team had a huge impact by helping me realize that I like programming and teaching me to work with a team on a large project.

Favorite Things about The Woods?

I enjoyed the robotics team and STEM classes.

Favorite Woods Teacher? Mr. O (Oosterhout) invited to the championship on the basis of their performance in one of Maryland’s FLL Qualifier events. That year, one of the qualifier events was held at The Woods Academy!

Favorite Tradition? The whole class built a large model in 5th grade science.

What advice do you have for our students at The Woods now? Have fun and enjoy learning.

The Owlbots, a team of nine seventh and eighth grade students, was coached by Jeff Oosterhout, fifth and sixth grade science teacher, and Katya Cunnane, second grade teacher (she is now the Director of the Lower School). The 2013 championship was the Owlbots’ fourth year in the FLL. At previous MD FLL championships, they have won Third Place in Robot Design (January 2010) and Second Place in Programming (January 2011).