Meet Our Team

Get Involved.

If you have any, questions regarding Next Gen Engineering, how to get involved, or if you would like to collaborate with our team please reach out!

Program Director: mohinrichsen@knights.ucf.edu
General questions: Next_Gen_Engineering@Outlook.com

Mitchell Hunsucker
Liaison Director

Mitch is a Junior majoring in Industrial engineering. He is very involved on campus with many organizations like eli2, First Step, Habitat UCF, IISE, and SHPE. He loves to play basketball and hangout with friends. His favorite part of UCF is the football games and other events that UCF has during the holidays.
He has had internships with Titan America and Northrop Grumman. He loved both of them and had a great time traveling to them as well!

Clara Poffenberger
Director of Research and Development

Clara is a fourth-year Mechanical Engineering Student. Throughout her four years at UCF, she has been an active member eli2. Clara has volunteered at the Center for Advanced Turbomachinery and Energy Research (CATER), participated in UCF’s College Work Experience Program at Lockheed Martin, and pursued an International Engineering minor by studying abroad in England during Spring 2020.
Starting Spring 2021, Clara is excited to be going back to CATER as an undergraduate researcher working on cooling for sCO2 turbine blades.

Emily Demboski

Emily Demboski is a sophomore majoring in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Central Florida. Emily is involved in many organizations on campus including the greek organization Chi Omega, the engineering honor society Pi Tau Sigma, Eli^2 and First Step. Her goal is to work in her field with the desired focus of aviation. She has had an internship at Logus Microwave, is currently working for Atria Technologies and is hoping to get more work experience in the next 2 years of college. Emily has certifications in AUTOCad, Revit and Inventor Professional and is currently pursuing a certification in Microsoft EXCEL. She has machine experience from her internship at Logus Microwave and is excited to use this knowledge to one day become a well rounded Engineer.

AnnaBelinda Zhou

AnnaBelinda is a second-year undergraduate majoring in Electrical & Computer Engineering. She is currently an event coordinator of the Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers, a member of the electrical team of Relectric Car, and a student leader of Eli^2 at UCF. She has been involved in IEEE, Bridges International, and Fencing Club. She hopes to further develop her technical and soft skills while making friends through extracurriculars.
She loves music and plays guitar, violin, drums, and Ocarina. She was in percussion and marching band back in high school. She is a hands-on person with a passion to build and assemble objects. With her interests, she looks to balance her professional life with outside hobbies. AnnaBelinda is a second-year undergraduate majoring in Electrical & Computer Engineering. She is currently an event coordinator of the Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers, a member of the electrical team of Relectric Car, and a student leader of Eli^2 at UCF. She has been involved in IEEE, Bridges International, and Fencing Club. She hopes to further develop her technical and soft skills while making friends through extracurriculars.
She loves music and plays guitar, violin, drums, and Ocarina. She was in percussion and marching band back in high school. She is a hands-on person with a passion to build and assemble objects. With her interests, she looks to balance her professional life with outside hobbies.

Student Team

Paige Fintel

Paige is currently an undergraduate in her first year studying Aerospace Engineering at the University of Central Florida, which is quite a ways from her home in Springfield, Missouri. She hopes to make connections through UCF and extracurriculars that will help her set up firm roots in STEM fields. Beyond UCF, Paige likes to write as a hobby, was involved in her high school's marching band playing the flute, and has volunteered hundreds of hours of her time to helping various members of her community.
Some of her previous accomplishments include being a FIRST alumni and competing in the FIRST Robotics Tech Challenges for 2018 through 2020 at both regional and state levels.

Tyler Harkcom

At UCF, Tyler Harkcom is the Director of the Student Team for the Engineering Leadership and Innovation Institute (eli^2), UCF’s engineering leadership development organization.
He is also involved with the startup culture at UCF, wherein he founded a tech startup with two classmates. More recently, he has been serving on the UCF College of Engineering COVID-19 Task Force, where he represent the undergraduate population, voicing concerns and presenting student feedback to the committee.

Justin TenEyck

Justin is a senior majoring in Computer Engineering and is minoring in Intelligent Robotic Systems and Mathematics. He is the current president of Artificial Intelligence at UCF, a student leader of eli^2, and one of the founders of Streats, a food truck startup started at UCF. He has also been involved in organizations such as CEO Knights, Association for Computing Machinery, and American Society for Mechanical Engineers.
During his involvement at UCF, he has pushed for inter-club relations and networking through student initiatives and eli^2. While he's not currently involved in an internship or research laboratory, he has spent a lot of time with students in the community, volunteering as a martial arts instructor and inspiring young kids in Robotics and Artificial Intelligence.

Wilton J. Aviles

Wilton, entered the University of Central Florida as a Mechanical Engineering major in 2016. He switched to Computer Science in Summer 2018 after discovering his passion in life for coding. He has been heavily involved with 2 organizations throughout my college career: as a Student Leader and Project Lead at eli2, and as a member of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers UCF Chapter (SHPE UCF). Through these organizations, as well as in and out of coursework, Wilton has developed himself technically, professionally, and has become an effective leader. He has also been involved in mentorship, coordinating and organizing outreach events, and leading projects and project groups.

Michael McGarty

Michael is an undergraduate Computer Engineering student at UCF. He is incredibly interested in the design of computer hardware, and how these incredibly complex devices are constructed from simple components. He hopes to one day be a part of a team which creates the next big innovation in computing. While he does love technology, he also shares that love with music. Before attending UCF, and throughout his time at UCF, he was a percussionist and worked as a music instructor at a local high school. He has since stopped performing and teaching, but still has a great passion toward the arts.
He has been heavily involved eli^2. My involvement within eli^2 has given him the tools to push for opportunities and challenge himself every day; especially during the organization of the National Design Challenge. He has mostly be involved in eli^2 projects, including other various projects, but he enjoys spending time learning and developing his technical skillset further every day.