Blue Ridge Boost Team

Leadership

Nora Evans
Founder and CEO
Nora Evans

Nora is originally from Bucharest, Romania. She earned a B.Sc. in Computer Science at the Polytechnic University of Bucharest and moved to Charlottesville in the Fall of 2004 to pursue graduate school at the University of Virginia where she earned a Master’s in Computer Science in 2006, a Master of Science in Mathematics in 2014, and a Master of Teaching in 2022. Nora published several research articles in computer science and has several years of industry experience as a software developer. Nora has extensive teaching experience as Lecturer in the Mathematics Department at UVA, Algebra teacher at Peabody School, math student-teacher at Monticello High School, and a teaching assistant in Computer Science at UVA.

At Blue Ridge Boost, Nora selects and develops class content, coaches the robotics competition teams, teaches advanced math and computer science classes, and tutors students in math and computer science.

Lain Bowman
Head of Operations
Web Developer
Lain Bowman

Lain graduated from the University of Virginia in May 2024 with a double major in Computer Science and Physics.

At Blue Ridge Boost, Lain selects and develops class content, coaches the robotics competition teams, teaches math and computer science classes, and tutors students in math.

David Evans
Teaching Troubadour
David Evans

David is a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Virginia where he teaches classes in Discrete Mathematics, Computer Science, Theory of Computation, and Artificial Intelligence (among other topics) and leads research on computer security and privacy. He won an All-University Teaching Award and Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia.

At Blue Ridge Boost, David helps instructors develop computing, math, and cryptography courses, teaches classes when he can, moves furniture, edits ChatGPT’s writing, and makes sure there is yummy food for the CEO and Teaching Assistant.

Instructors

Dorina Evans
Teaching Assistant
Coding, Robotics, and Math
Dorina Evans

Dorina is a seventh-grader at St. Anne’s-Belfield School. She is passionate about robotics and mathematics.

Dorina is a member of the _Next Level_ FLL Challenge Team, which won the Robot Design Award at the 24-25 FIRST Championship. Dorina leads the Blue Ridge Robotics FIRST Tech Challenge Team, which earned a Control Award for programming and robot design in January 2025, and co-leads the Aerial Drones _Siblings Squared_ Team, which qualified for the Northeast Regional Championship. At the 2024 _Girls Excelling in Math_ (GEM) competition, Dorina earned first place in the individual competitions, first overall in team rankings, and third place in team engineering.

Ouzman Cisse
Robotics Teacher
Ouzman Cisse

Ouzman is a second year at the University of Virginia. He is studying for a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering. Ouzman has great interest in Rocketry, CAD, and robotics.

Jacob Dulin

1st year at PVCC, pursuing associates of CS and planning on transferring to a 4 year for computer science. Grew up in little ol’ Greene County just north of Charlottesville. Coder and former coding captain of FTC Team Monroe Robotics.

Melissa George
Robotics and Drones Teacher
Melissa George

Joseph Johnson
Math Teacher
Joseph Johnson

Joseph is a 2nd year student at the University of Virginia on the pre-med track, studying psychology. He is from Fairfax, Virginia, and has interests in dancing and music.

Asher Saunders
Team Lead
Web Developer
Instructor
Asher Saunders

As graduate from UVA’s School of Engineering, Asher works at Blue Ridge Boost as an instructor & developer.

Nathaneal Wattier
Coding and Math Teacher

Nathaneal is a first-year student at the University of Virginia.

Evan Xu
Robotics Teacher

Evan is a senior at Western Albemarle High School and a Community Scholar at the University of Virginia, with interests in mechanical engineering and applied mathematics. He began his journey in FIRST through FLL, where he also founded the YouTube channel Wordynerd48 to share robotics mechanisms and tutorials. He later competed in FTC for two years, earning a 1st Place Design Award with his team.

Currently, Evan competes in FRC as the Build Captain of Team 619, Cavalier Robotics. At Blue Ridge Boost, he mentors FLL and FTC teams, teaching robot design and game strategy. Outside of robotics, Evan enjoys boxing, playing the piano, and baking.