Hello,

My name is Richard Santana. I teach three different levels of Engineering at Heritage High School and am very active in regards to technical extracurricular activities at Heritage High School. For the last 7 years, I have participated as a technical advisor for the HHS Robotics Club where we manage and mentor seven robotics teams to make competition level robots and compete at a regional level. I have also co-advised the PUHSD Solar Cup team for three years where we build a boat from scratch, attach a solar panel on it, and race it with neighboring water districts. Lastly, as an extension of my introductory engineering course, I also volunteer to mentor a group of three students for the last three years to compete at the Chevron Design Challenge; a 3D Modeling competition where students are put under immense pressure to solve a problem with very strict timelines and in the end get judged by a panel of engineers.

Prior to becoming an engineering teacher, I worked in the field of business running a small business in educational robotics. I was employed as a mechanical engineer for a private company designing underwater drones. I have also interned in the Information Systems department with the City of Temecula where I had the opportunity to work with servers, switches, and routers. Like many of us, at one point I did work in the retail sales/customer service industry. I consider myself an entrepreneur at heart, always looking for opportunities to create a business or invest in new ventures. Lastly and most importantly, I am a maker at heart; always tinkering, designing and 3D printing, laser cutting, and programming side projects.

I have a wonderful wife that I have been in a relationship for over a decade now and have been married too since 2016. We love traveling and experiencing different cultures, eating all types of food (some very controversial), and camping/ hiking. We are both fortunate to have a large family on both my wife’s side and my side along with a wide group of friends and acquaintances that keep us busy all year.

Back 2 School Night 

For the Introduction to Engineering Design video click HERE

For the Principles of Engineering video click HERE

For the Engineering Design and Development video click HERE

Click HERE if you have any questions and would like me to contact you.