Dave Lavery

From an early age, Lavery was obsessed with space exploration. With his eyesight being too poor to become an astronaut, he set about to use machines as his proxy for exploring the Solar System. He attended Virginia Tech, where he obtained a bachelor's degree in Computer Science. ==Career==

Lavery led NASA's Telerobotics Technology Development Program, responsible for the direction and oversight of robotics and planetary exploration within the organization. He and the program was responsible for the likes of the Mars Sojourner rover, which was the first rover he worked on, and the National Robotics Engineering Consortium. Lavery currently works at the NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., as the program executive for solar system explorations. He oversees and is heavily involved with the Mars Exploration Rovers. Notably, he oversaw the mission of the Curiosity rover in 2012. Lavery is also the project manager for NASAs' Robotics Alliance Project, a position he shared with fellow NASA scientist and FIRST Robotics participant Mark Leon. ==FIRST Robotics==

Lavery is very active within the FIRST Robotics Competition, and currently sits on the Executive Advisory Board of FIRST. He is responsible for NASA's vast involvement in the competitions, having brought the organization to the attention of NASA in 1995. NASA now sponsors over 300 teams, and hosts teams at each of its research centers in the United States. The Competition's Dave Lavery Animation Award for Excellence in Animation is named in honor of him. ==References==