Rebeca is a geek turned entrepreneur. She has been intimately involved in the world of competitions since 1997. Rebeca has participated, won, organized and judged competitions with Junior Achievement, the World Bank, MIT and Stanford University. In 2006, she co-founded and led the judging process of the Cleantech Open Competition. The alumni of this program generated 2,000 jobs and raised more than $660M in capital and grants. Rebeca received a B.S. and a Masters degree from MIT in Chemical and Environmental Engineering. She co-founded YouNoodle during a leave of absence from a doctoral degree at Stanford and has led the company to manage entrepreneurial competitions and programs around the globe.

Dr. Michal Vakrat Wolkin is currently serving as the Chair of the NASA Night Rover Challenge Technical Committee. Michal led Better Place business-development and technology efforts for electric-vehicle batteries. She is a materials scientist with over 15 years of experience in interdisciplinary research with specific focus on transforming highly innovative technologies from ideas into working prototypes. Before joining Better Place, she was a member of the research staff at the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), where she managed a team of scientists creating and implementing materials and processes for PARC’s cleantech research program. Prior to joining PARC, Dr. Wolkin was a leading scientist in the research and development department of JDS Uniphase. Dr. Wolkin received a PhD in Materials Science from the University of Rochester and an undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering from The Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. She holds several patent applications and her research is widely cited (most notably, her paper entitled, “Electronic States and Luminescence in Porous Silicon Quantum Dots,” has been cited over 1,000 times). Dr. Wolkin currently serves on various industrial review panels related to battery technologies, advisory boards, and is a frequent speaker at industry events.

Ron worked on the Apollo program for NASA designing the thermal management system for the Lunar Rover Vehicle. Ron continues to support NASA's educational efforts at Marshall Space Flight Center, in Huntsville, Alabama. He currently works for the Missile Defense Agency.

Thomas is the Executive Director of I.S.I.S. Youth, an educational organization focused on engaging under-served students in science and technology. He has led the development of numerous culturally relevant events to help inspire youth to be more creative and interested in their own education. Thomas also works with Anhk Marketing, a hip-hop, pop culture event management company.