Mark Leon

Timeline

1. 1986

   Electrical engineering at San Jose State

   In 1986, he earns an electrical engineering degree at San Jose State.

2. 1992

   A live link from Antarctica

   In November 1992, he helps build the system for Antarctica's first live broadcast with NASA and National Science Foundation colleagues, using laser beams, microwaves, fiber optics and communication satellites.

3. 1998

   The Robotics Alliance Project

   Since 1998, he directs NASA's Robotics Alliance Project, which supports classroom education and student contests. As a NASA engineer, he recruits colleagues, an English teacher and students at Broadway High School in San Jose to form the Botball team The Manglers.

4. 1999

   A real-time link to the Arctic

   In 1999, he presents work on a real-time multimedia link to the Arctic as project manager of NASA Learning Technologies.

5. 2002

   NASA's Robotics Education Project

   In 2002, he is project manager of NASA's Robotics Education Project at Ames. NASA plans sponsorships for about 130 new teams in the 2003 FIRST competition and recruits volunteer engineers to mentor schools.

6. 2008

   Planning a lunar micro-rover

   In 2008, he plans for Hawaii's robotics students to help build a $500,000 micro-rover intended for the Moon in 2012.

7. 2011

   NASA Robot Project curriculum

   In 2011, he coauthors the NASA Robot Project, an online Botball curriculum that teaches students to build robots and program them in C.

8. 2018

   Death in April 2018

   He dies in April 2018.