I was a computer technician in Romania, but in the States and now in Canada I work in constructions, as is better payed. No university degree, just self taught hobbyist. I have started to experiment with electronics when I was in mid school and I learned some mechanics in school. So I know a bit about all fields in robotics, but my weakest point is programming. About 8 years ago I found Lego Mindstorms RIS and I was hooked. I started to design my own boards when I got tired of the RIS limitations. But now, the new NXT is tempting me sometimes to get back to Lego. If only there were similar competitions in Toronto like we had in Ann Arbor, MI. Oh well, I don't have a good enough reason to spend that much on a NXT kit when I still have 2 RIS kits. Anyway, I am a real fan of Arduino platform, as I can make my own boards and use their environment to program my robots with ease. Mean while, Webbotlib is getting better and better and soon will become the best way to program the robots.