Our Team

Our Mission

To help young minds discover the joys of engineering and working together as team, while developing STEM skills, leadership skills, and building FTC Robots that can compete and win. Inspiring a mind-set of innovation, collaboration, and sharing.

About Us

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The X-bots are a community based FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) robotics team dedicated to sharing the wonders of STEM and FIRST. After five years in FLL the X-bots graduated to FTC in 2012. This is our seventh year in FTC.

Team consists of one twelfth graders: Our captain Anoushka Chintada; one eleventh grader: Arjun Mangipudi; two tenth graders: Anish Malik and Shawn Malik and two ninth graders: Anand Vinod and Jonathan Tong. Since winning the Virginia/DC Division 1 FLL Championships in 2010, we have been FIRST ambassadors and have spread our love of FIRST to the community. We feel that FIRST has taught us many valuable life lessons besides STEM – leadership skills, team work, and Gracious Professionalism and want to bring that to our community and beyond.

	Anoushka Chintada Team Captain, Engineering Notebook, Drive Coach , Build Career of Interest: Astronomy Grade: 12
Hi! My name is Anoushka Chintada. I am a 12th grader at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. This is my 8th year of FTC, and I participated in First Lego League for two years. Some of my hobbies are reading, dancing, playing piano and flute, and doing science experiments. I was one of Virginia’s Dean’s List Finalists in both 2018 and 2019. In middle school, I created a non-profit to help bring STEM to the community called STEM Kidz Club, and I am an officer on my school’s underwater robotics team. In my house, FTC is a family event, with my brother and both parents coaching. My roles in FTC on the team include team lead, leader for Engineering Notebook, driving coach, and builder. What I love about FTC: I love FTC and FIRST as they’ve both helped shape my life in so many ways I have spent hundreds of hours volunteering for FTC. It makes me so happy to be able to work and learn so much about real life processes. FTC opens up so many doors and opportunities that I wouldn’t otherwise have. What I love about X-BOTS: Being on X-Bots means so much to me. I have been on the team the longest and watched us grow and change and through it all we’ve always been a team that supports each and every member equally, one that works hard, and one that values the things that also matter to me. The team is like a second family to me, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Fun Fact: I have performed at the Kennedy Center for Indian classical dance.
	Arjun Mangipudi Build; Outreach Career of Interest: Aerospace Engineering Grade: 11
Hi! My name is Arjun Mangipudi, and I am a junior attending Westfield High School. This will be my third year doing FTC and my 6th year with FIRST. In my free time I love to play various sports. My hobbies include various outdoor activities such as boating, biking, and hiking. I participate in track, Science Olympiad, and Science bowl at school. My goal for this season is to try and build the best or highest scoring robot there is for this challenge. What I love about FTC: I like working together with my teammates to build a competition robot and score the most points we can. I also like the competitiveness of FTC. What I love about X-BOTS: I like being a part of X-BOTS because I am able to build and do what I love which is something I take as a privilege. Fun Fact: I do track and play various sports.
	Anish Malik Driver, CAD Design, Outreach Career of Interest: Mechanical Engineering and Robotics Grade: 10
My name is Anish Malik. I am in 10th grade and go to James Madison High School. I have done FLL for 4 years, and this is my third year doing FTC. Some of my hobbies include playing tennis, coding, volunteering, designing personal inventions, and building. Some activities I participate in are American Computer Science League, Cyber Patriots, Hypernova(with George Mason students). My goals for the season are making a high-scoring robot, gain experience in building robots, and sharing STEM within my community. What I love about FTC: I like FTC because it is a hands-on learning experience and I am learning a lot about things that interest me. What I love about XBOTS: I like that all the team members are really nice and I get to help out in lots of building based tasks. Fun Fact: I like to design new and futuristic inventions/products at home in my free time.

	Shawn Malik Build, CAD Design, Outreach Career of Interest: Mechanical Engineering Grade: 10
My name is Shawn Malik and I am a 10th grader, currently attending James Madison High School. I have had 5 years of experience in FLL, and this is my third year in FTC. Some of my hobbies include playing basketball and doing robotics. When I grow up, I want to be a mechanical engineer. I participate in many activities outside of school. I am in ACSL (American Computer Science League), and also HyperNova with George Mason University, in which I have a leadership position. This year in FTC I hope to expand my knowledge in technology and learn a lot about robotics. What I love about FTC: I like participating in FTC because it provides me with an opportunity to participate in a friendly competition while allowing me to learn a lot, and gain experience in the robotics field. What I love about XBOTS: I like being on team XBOTS because we are a very diverse team. We are a community-based team, allowing all of us to learn from each other, as we have different strengths. Fun Fact: I have been playing chess since first grade and have won multiple trophies.
	Anand Vinod Career of Interest: Computer Science Grade: 9
I am Anand Vinod, a freshman at Langley Highschool. I have competed in FLL Tournaments for 3 years, and have done FTC for 2 years. Outside of school, I do American Computer Science League, and piano. I enjoy programming in java, and having a challenge. I hope to use my programming knowledge to complete the tasks this year, in a timely and efficient manner. What I love about FTC: I like how FTC gives a real life application to what we learn in and out of school. Although it may be on a smaller scale, eventually we will use these concepts and ideas later on. It’s also very satisfying to see the robot work. What I love about XBOTS: I like how all of the team is very supportive. I also like how have the resources to try ideas on concepts that we have. Additionally, the team members are passionate about robotics, which makes FTC a more enjoyable experience. Fun Fact: I play tennis in my spare time.

	Jonathan Tong Programmer Career of Interest: Computer Science Grade: 9
I’m Johnathan Tong, a freshman at Thomas Jefferson High School of Science and Technology. This is my third year doing FTC and my first year on the X-Bots. Outside of robotics, I play video games with my friend. Some programming languages I have previously worked with are Python and Java. What I love about FTC: FTC is a team-based activity. Meaning that everybody does their part to contribute and build a, hopefully, functioning robot. This means that everybody learns new things whether it is mechanical or programming. Not only does the team learn, we inspire many people by doing outreach in our communities. This allows us to give back to the community. What I love about XBOTS: The team is very efficient and has taught me a lot about programming. Not only did I learn about programming, they also make sure programmers have basic mechanical skills. Fun Fact: I like to play card games in my free time.

Robotics is part of daily life in the family: Nagesh Chintada and Asha Indira have dedicated countless hours and their basement for Robotics, coaching the X-BOTS for over 10 years now. They both have background in Computer Science, Engineering, Product Development, and they enjoy mentoring the youth, teaching them skills to thrive in 21st Century through FTC.