Merge pull request Women-Coding-Community#473 from nverbic/add-new-mentors

Add new mentors - Griswald Brooks - Tiffany Cappeellari - Lakshmi Balakrishnan

Author: rajashreemunoli

_data/mentors.yml

@@ -2427,3 +2427,115 @@
       Transitioning from a non-technical background
   network:
     - linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/eniola-oduntan
+
+- name: Griswald Brooks
+  disabled: false
+  matched: false
+  sort: 500
+  num_mentee: 1
+  hours: 4
+  type: long-term
+  index: 73
+  location: Boston, MA
+  position: Senior Robotics Engineer, PickNik Robotics
+  bio: |
+    10 years of experience building mobile robots
+  image: |
+    assets/images/mentors/griswald_brooks.jpeg
+  languages: English
+  availability: []
+  skills:
+    experience: 7-10 Years
+    years: 10
+    mentee: |
+      Engineers with a solid foundation that need a little guidance
+    areas: []
+    languages: C++, Python
+    focus:
+    - Grow from mid-level to senior-level
+    - Grow from beginner to mid-level
+    extra: |
+      Robotics software development
+  network:
+  - linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/griswaldbrooks/
+  - website: https://bsky.app/profile/griswaldbrooks.bsky.social
+
+- name: Tiffany Cappeellari
+  disabled: false
+  matched: false
+  sort: 500
+  num_mentee: 1
+  hours: 2
+  type: long-term
+  index: 74
+  location: Boston, MA, USA
+  position: Roboticist, RAI Institute
+  bio: |
+    I am currently a roboticist/software engineer at the RAI Institute in Boston, MA. At RAI, I work as part of the Robotics API Development Team to build APIs and platforms for our researchers to develop on. I work closely with many of the research teams and am the primary maintainer for our Spot ROS 2 driver and related repositories. Last year, I also had the privilege of presenting our work on this driver at ROSCon 2024. 
+
+    Before RAI, I lived in San Antonio, TX for a few years where I worked as a robotics software engineer at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI). At SwRI, I worked on various industrial automation projects using robots to complete tasks such as sanding, painting, welding, and taking x-rays. I also presented my work at several conferences and was the lead trainer for the ROS-Industrial classes SwRI hosted throughout the year. 
+
+    I completed both my bachelors and masters studies at UC Berkeley in studied electrical engineering and computer science with a focus on robotics and control theory. During my time there, I worked as a student researcher in the Biomimetic Millisystems Lab working on various robotics and controls research projects and was also a TA/GSI for the robotics courses. 
+  image: |
+    assets/images/mentors/tiffany_cappeellari.jpeg
+  languages: English
+  availability: []
+  skills:
+    experience: 4-5 Years
+    years: 5
+    mentee: |
+      I'm looking for mentees that want to work in robotics! I'm looking for people that are recent/soon-to-be graduates and/or early career or wanting to switch industries into robotics or automation. 
+    areas:
+    - Backend Developer
+    - Project Management
+    - Engineering management
+    - Backend Developer
+    - Backend Developer
+    languages: Python, Python, Python, C++, C++
+    focus:
+    - Grow from beginner to mid-level
+    - Grow from beginner to mid-level
+    - Grow from beginner to mid-level
+    - Change specialisation within IT
+    - Change specialisation within IT
+    extra: |
+      software development, resume review, technical and non-technical interview prep, graduate school applications, research
+  network:
+  - linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tiffany-cappellari-199174149/
+
+- name: Lakshmi Balakrishnan
+  disabled: false
+  matched: false
+  sort: 500
+  num_mentee: 1
+  hours: 3
+  type: both
+  index: 75
+  location: 'Birmingham, UK '
+  position: senior software engineer, Shopworks
+  bio: |
+    I have been working in the tech industry for 12 years now - as a backend engineer, specialising in Php, even though I have worked with a few other languages and was a front end developer a life time ago. 
+  image: |
+    assets/images/mentors/lakshmi_balakrishnan.jpeg
+  languages: English
+  availability: [5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11]
+  skills:
+    experience: 10-15 Years
+    years: 15
+    mentee: |
+      I am looking ideally someone who want to grow in their career and would benefit from the insights of someone who has been in the industry for a while.
+    areas:
+    - Backend Developer
+    - QA
+    - Fullstack Developer
+    - Distributed Systems
+    - Frontend Developer
+    languages: Python, Javascript
+    focus:
+    - Switch career to IT
+    - Grow from mid-level to senior-level
+    - Change specialisation within IT
+    extra: |
+      Software development strategies, career goals
+  network:
+  - linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lakshmi-balakrishnan-21b3a253

assets/images/mentors/griswald_brooks.jpeg

@@ -391,6 +391,9 @@ def get_new_mentors_in_yml_format(yml_file_path, xlsx_file_path, skip_rows=1):
         new_index = df_yml['Index'].max().item() + 1
 
         for row in range(0, len(df_mentors)):
+            if df_mentors.iloc[row].isnull().all():
+                break
+
             mentor_name = df_mentors.iloc[row].values[2].strip().lower()
 
             if df_yml.loc[df_yml.Name == mentor_name].empty: