Who is “Will Mannel”?

William Pfeifer Mannel was born on March 29, 2002 in Mountain View, California. He took his first steps 9 months later, said his first words, “Blues Clues”, a few months after that, and learned how to use a computer over the following year. He has been enamored with technology ever since.

 
 

What does Will Mannel do for work?

He has worked in the defense software industry starting age 15 at the Naval Research Laboratory in Monterey Bay, California, returning another summer in high school and another in college at UT Austin. He continued to work at Raytheon missiles and defense the summer after his 3rd year at UT Austin.

 
 

What does Will Mannel care about?

Will values education and fairness above all else. He spends time as a volunteer tutor as Academics and Education Chair of the Beta Mu chapter of the Pi Kappa Alpha International Fraternity at UT Austin. He also founded Programmers With Disabilities (PWD), an organization in Austin which checks in with disabled software workers and students to create a support network and ensure academic and industrial institutions adequately accommodate disabled communities.

 
 

What does Will Mannel like?

He has since tinkered with any tech he could get his hands on, from building a robotic arm in 5th grade, to programming small video games in Scratch and Corona SDK, and to designing virtual retina scanners and other “redstone” engineering feats in Minecraft. This was aided through the enrollment of a Java programming class at Monterey Peninsula College at age 12.

 
 

What does Will Mannel do for fun?

He spends his free time surfing, solving Rubik’s cubes, playing and modding Minecraft, and programming/playing games with his friends online and in person. Will drives a Jeep Wrangler, likes his coffee iced and black, has a black belt in Tang Soo Do style Karate, and has seen every episode of Spongebob Squarepants. He is also an intermediate powerlifter hoping to join the “1000lbs” club by 2025.

 
 

What will Will do next?

Will hopes to move back to the Bay Area in the future to be closer to family. Furthermore, Will is looking forward to graduating from UT Austin in December of 2024, and plans to work in industry before continuing with higher education.