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Shark Tank

Shark Tank
Shark Tank

Back by popular demand is Shark Tank.

The event is based on the popular tv show, that puts our grade 12 Engineering Capstone students in the hot seat to present to a full audience and five industry experts their most innovative ideas. This class is a new and innovative course that is currently in its second year of being offered in the WHS curriculum. The design of the course and the heavy focus on skills-based learning outcomes are intended to be a unique experience for our students. Students have been challenged to identify a problem they find interesting and to propose a unique solution to it. We have invited five "sharks", experts in business and applications of science and technology, to vet their ideas and identify which student projects will move on to the prototyping phase of product development. The pressure is on and the reward goes past a good grade in the class.

Mr. Kaplo has been the pioneer in this event for the last three years. The event is not to just have students hand in some work to get a grade, it teaches them life skills that go beyond the classroom, skills of the modern entrepreneur. This project is about teaching students that success is not just taking one class and passing, it's all about taking risks, working hard, being resourceful and what you don't know, figure it out.

Throughout the year, students build mentoring relationships with the sharks to help guide them in their design process and they are also given the opportunity to listen to some really successful people, and see all of the skills that they have and learn from their mistakes, take notes from their accomplishments.

The event is open to the public and will be held on Thursday, November 8th(6pm-10pm) in the Auditorium.

Learn more about our sharks who are have all volunteered their time to be apart of this great event for our students.

Meet the Sharks

Paul Tardif

Paul is a graduate of Bentley College with a Bachelor of Science in Accounting and Bachelor of Arts in Business Management. He is a retired Vice President of Mergers & Acquisition with a demonstrated history of working in the Life Science and Industrial research and analytical instruments industries. As a business development professional he is skilled and experienced in Strategic Evaluation, Negotiation of Complex Cross Border Transactions, Licensing Agreements, Collaborations, Minority Interests, Venture Capital, Privately Held Founder Controlled Enterprises, Board matters, and Integration Planning. He has experience in Corporate and Private Venture Capital Investing and provides start-up consulting for Angel investors.

He is an active member of the East Coast Angels, is husband to Colleen, and proud parent to three children, including WHS alum Mike Tardif.

Jaime Slocum

Jaime Slocum is currently the owner/founder of Club14 Windham, a local indoor golf and virtual reality facility. She also the Director of NetSuite Sales at ManageForce, a managed services company out of Franklin, MA. In addition to these roles, she serves on a variety of non-profit boards in Windham including service as co-President to both the Windham Garden Club and the Windham MOMS Club. She's also mother to two young daughters in the Windham School District, Jaylee and Josie, 4 and 7 respectively.

Previously, Jaime attended Worcester Polytechnic Institute where she received a degree in Civil Engineering with a minor in Management and Accounting. She used this degree to become very active in the field of construction, focusing on green design through the use of virtual construction technology. She worked in several capacities focusing on Construction Project Management and Operations for several small and medium size businesses, and also became a licensed construction supervisor, and LEED accredited professional in MA. She also guest lectured at WPI and Wentworth Institute of Technology on the subject of Virtual Construction.

When not working on her professional endeavors or spending time with family, Jaime enjoys a variety of hobbies including baking, sewing, and spending time outdoors hiking, camping, biking and (more recently) rock climbing!

Scott Baetz

Scott is a graduate of Marine Recruit Depot San Diego and Brown University, with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Bachelor of Arts in Organizational Behavior Management. Scott understands passion and drive, by starting his career in the Marine Corps when he turned a computer and a stack of manuals found in a closet into a Million Dollar database program that revolutionized the Marine Corps management of assets. His exposure to production manufacturing and operational consulting along with business operations allow him to provide keen insight into start-up organizations. He currently owns AdminSports, a youth athletics web administration firm, providing the nations registration services for organizations like US Ski & Snowboard and the Boston Area Youth Soccer League. You might recognize him, as he is the liaison between WHS and Building Dreams for Marines for our own Warrior Week. He is married to Jane, resides in Windham and is the proud father of Olivia, a 2019 WHS graduate.

Kenny Samel

In 1977, Kenny started his professional career in technology when Wang Labs hired him away from the family business. He spent the next seven years developing the industries first 3.5" floppy disc controller, the first hard drive based PC, and many other communication and data storage products.

Kenny left Wang when he and a close friend and coworker decided to take the risk and start their own company: Magna Computer. Magna Computer developed one of the first graphic workstations, the first encryption disk controller for the US military, and a real-time data translation device for the US State Dept. During this time, Magna Computer was featured in the Business New Hampshire Magazine, PC Magazine and ComputerWorld. Ten years after Magna Computer was founded, it was acquired by EMC.

At EMC, Ken's team developed and implemented one of the first completely automated ‘push software update systems', which would automatically update the customer's systems in the field during periods of inactivity.

After ten years at EMC, Kenny left and moved his life, family, and career to California where he joined Quantum as VP of Software Development and one year later as VP of Engineering. He led development organizations spread across five locations around the world.

Following his retirement and before moving back to NH, Kenny assisted at University of California, Irvine in their Applied Innovation program known as The Cove. He also was part of The Million Cups program, which encourages anyone (students and locals of any age) to present their product ideas to an audience made up of VCs, patent attorneys, and business savvy consultants.

Throughout his career, Kenny has developed over 100 consumer products including high end audio, the market's first flat screen plasma TV, digital projectors for home and movie theaters, medical and safety devices, including a safety device used by free-divers and scuba-divers as well as the Navy Seals.

Spencer Webb Trained in electrical engineering at MIT, Spencer spent eight years as an analog design engineer prior to finding and focusing on his true passion: antennas.

Mr. Webb began his antenna consulting business about 1991. Early projects included working on low-earth-orbit satellite ground-station communications antennas for some of the first email-over-satellite projects to handle urgent medical communications. He was able to successfully triple the data throughput of ground stations that were located in Africa.

His work in the area of covert electronics for the law-enforcement and intelligence fields began in 1994, when Mr. Webb became the Senior Antenna Engineer for DTC Communications. For the next six years, Mr. Webb developed a reputation for innovative and extremely efficient antenna designs for audio transmitters, video transmitters, beacons and tracking systems.

In 2000, Mr. Webb left DTC and started AntennaSys, Inc. He designs antennas for all applications. He serves as a consultant for numerous companies incorporating embedded antennas in their commercial products.

Mr. Webb is also a respected trainer for the U.S. Military in the area of improvised antennas for Special Operators.

As part of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, Mr. Webb helped to design a 40-pound satellite ground station which replaced a 400-pound suite of equipment. This portable system is currently being sold to the U.S. Military.

Mr. Webb is a named inventor on over twenty U.S. patents, and multiple international patents.

When not designing antennas, Mr. Webb is a dedicated husband, and father to two great kids who think that every home's garage is meant to house a complete machine shop. He's been licensed as an Extra-Class Amateur Radio Operator since 1977. He is an avid photographer, and a 3rd-degree Black Belt and Instructor at United Taekwondo in Pelham NH.