About the Technical Reviewers

DR. BRIAN DAVIS has been building Lego robots of various types for about five years, programming mostly in NQC on the RCX. He has designed robots to play tic-tac-toe, compete in robotic sumo, and successfully challenge more "conventional" robots in events such as line following and maze solving. He has also worked on community projects like the Great Ball Contraption, a cooperative kinetic sculpture that moves small Lego balls around, and has helped coordinate Lego fan events such as BrickFest and House of Bricks. In 2005 he was contacted by Lego to become a member of the Mindstorms User Panel expansion, a small group of Lego enthusiasts who were consulted on the development of the NXT Mindstorms product. Since then he has immersed himself in the NXT product, building robots, working on studless design, and digging out the details of the NXT-G language and the NXT hardware. He regularly contributes to several online resources, including The NXT Step Blog, LUGNET, and others.

Brian received a PhD in physics from the University of Michigan, and currently lives in northern Indiana. When he is not playing with Lego (actually, even when he is), he is a husband and stay-at-home Dad of three and also teaches college-level physics, biophysics, and astronomy. He can be reached at [email protected].

JEFF GENNICK is an 11-year-old "Yooper," living in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, about seven blocks from Lake Superior. Jeff has more Legos than his father likes to think about, having seemingly invested all of his father's retirement fund into the little blocks. Legos are everywhere in the house, and Jeff and friends are frequently building and tearing down their various creations. When not playing with Lego bricks, Jeff switches into gamer mode where you'll find him at work conquering games such as Lego Star Wars II, Freelancer, and Veggie Tales: LarryBoy and the Bad Apple. Jeff gets outdoors too, and during good weather you may see him mountain-biking with his father on the local trails.