Jason Bardis

Jason Dante Bardis is a former BattleBots judge who held the role from World Championship IV until the end of BattleBots: Champions. Throughout his tenure, he was always joined by Lisa Winter and Derek Young. Bardis previously competed in the show, best known for winning the Season 3.0 and 5.0 lightweight championships with Dr. Inferno Jr., as well as entering heavyweights Towering Inferno and The Disk O' Inferno. 
He and Christian Carlberg collaborated during several early projects, such as Slugger during the Las Vegas 1999 event. Following through the year of 1999 during a LEGO Mindstorms event, they created a short promo video to document their fighting LEGO bots: the Infernolab's 2A and Team Coolrobots' Dreadnought. More bots were built single-handedly by Jason throughout 1999, The Missing Link and Dr. Inferno Jr. following. After several wins and losses, an assembled team made up of his brother Byron, his girlfriend Lauren Herold, and other members took the pits from Seasons 1.0 to 3.0. The majority of the bots made public TV appearances such as UPN's Grown Ups sitcom, the KCAL news with The Missing Link and Slugger, and Movies for Guys who like Movies with Dr. Inferno Jr. and Towering Inferno. 
In 2016, when Jason's two young children had gotten older, he and Richard Loehnig put together a team for the BattleBots reboot. They built The Disk O’ Inferno, a 250lb disk and lifter robot based on his 120lb robot Disko Inferno, which had a very similar design. Realizing that competing required more time, money and energy than he could invest into competing, Jason would not compete again after World Championship II. He was initially asked about the possibility of judging ahead of the 2018 season, but Jason was too busy.https://youtu.be/6PkThuoAeec?t=595 He instead took up a judging role ahead of the 2019 season, where he remained for three full seasons and both spin-off series.
However, as of World Championship VII, Jason Bardis will no longer be a judge for BattleBots. In September 2022, he stated that it was a decision made by Discovery themselves, though the details of this are not confirmed.Private Gmail conversation between Falco276 and Jason Bardis.
"I won't be attending after all. Discovery decided they didn't want to invite me back, and they'll replace me. Oh well. That's show business. It was good while it lasted. At least I'll have lots of time with my family, time to work on projects, catch up on chores, etc." - Jason Bardis via email.
It was later revealed that the vacant judging role would be taken by former guest judge and Mouser Mecha-Catbot builder Fon Davis.
== Outside BattleBots ==
He was born and raised in Ottawa Hills near Toledo, Ohio in the 1970s, where he mostly grew up with Lincoln Logs, Hot Wheels, LEGO, Zoids, and Erector Sets. His parents and older brother, Byron Galen Bardis were in Florence, Italy, visiting the house of the famous poet, Dante Alighieri. His brother, three years old at the time, hit upon the idea that his forthcoming baby brother should be named Dante.
Two decades later, Bardis earned a Project Analyst position at PTCG, a Boston-based company that wrote big huge software that trucking companies used to schedule and route their trucks. While in Boston, he caught wind of early Robot Wars events in San Francisco, but believed he could not afford to travel or build for the competition. Having had enough of the "real world" and "snow," he traversed across the country to escape back to college for more degrees, this time at UCSB. Brushed up on his French, he landed a job in Capellen, Luxembourg, employed at Les Laboratoires Des Spécialités Du Dr. Ernst's Tisanes where he taught employees how to use computers and set in motion the automated revamping of their manufacturing line of medicinal herbal teas.
Christian Carlberg helped him with a couple of movie special effects jobs over his school breaks. Bardis designed a fiber optic lighting system for those mean and nasty Borgs in Star Trek: First Contact and he machined a mountain of internal parts for those mean and nasty mutated cockroaches in Mimic.
His first robot build, Rampage, was constructed on a shoestring budget in collaboration with his fellow classmates from UCSB's Mechanical Engineering department. It performed poorly in a featherweight rumble during Robot Wars 1996 where the bot was later upgraded and renamed to Bot will Eat Itself. It performed better than it's previous predecessor during Robot Wars 1997, save for some minor damage. His 1997 summer job related directly to his research as a lab technician in McDonnell Douglas' Long Beach composites prototyping area.
He was also a brief competitor on Season 1 of Robotica with Mini Inferno, which had much less success.
=== Reddit AMA Bio ===
Jason Bardis' first robot combat event was Robot Wars 1996, in which he entered Rampage, an awkward double-saw, double-wedge sheet metal box filled with the guts from his Tamiya Frog RC buggy that he got in junior high. (In grade school, he used to use Tomy Rascal and Acrobot wind-up robots to knock down towers of dominoes with his best friend.) It stopped working the first time it bumped into another robot. Jason was in graduate school at the time, where he had convinced the Mechanical Engineering department to give him keys to the machine shop to be an after-hours supervisor (“I’ll build robots, I’ll keep an eye on the undergrads building their projects, and the staff won’t have to work evenings and weekends! Everybody wins!”) and to give him and other students a small budget for that competition.
After that modest beginning, and after a few only-slightly-less-modest years of building bots, he realized that his path to bot stardom would not lie in actually winning fights, so he dressed up his team in flashy outfits and built Dr. Inferno Jr., figuring he could appeal to kids and gain audience sympathy when he lost. Despite his intentions, Dr. Inferno Jr. wound up winning two Giant Nuts as well as finding success in end of season rumbles too.
Following the show's cancellation from Comedy Central, Jason Bardis (now "Dr. Jason") leveraged the invaluable network of bot builder colleagues to take turns working with each other in various interesting jobs, where he contributed to: two robotic arms and two cameras for Mars exploration missions, dancing multimedia fountains for Vegas casinos, antennas on passenger aircraft that let you read Reddit on your flights, a mobility scooter for the elderly or disabled, high efficiency brush and brushless motors, movie special effects, and creative development for The Big Brain Theory: Pure Genius TV show.
== Trivia ==
* In between BattleBots seasons, Jason likes taking his safer, smaller robots to schools, daycares, libraries, and scout meetings to give talks and demos to young people to get them interested in mechanical engineering.
*Jason came up with the name "Dr. Inferno" while being a grad student at UCSB. His first name, Jason, is Greek for Doctor while his middle name "Dante" derives from Italian poet and critic, Dante Aligheiri, who wrote about the Divine Comedy, which includes a trip to the Inferno. 
* Dr. Inferno was Jason's radio DJ title during his college days.
* Bardis used inspiration from the toys he played with during his childhood to build more robots.
* At a young age, he would construct model cars and planes and then melt them after he got bored with them. His brother taught him how to just soften up the parts with a match instead of burning them, so he could deform the car doors and hoods and such and make them look all dented up.
* Then there was the time that Jason emptied the remnants of gas from the lawnmower for winter storage (his parents told him to do this) and decided to empty it on the driveway then light it. He was surprised by how much fire and smoke so little gas can produce.
* As a novice skater, Jason used to own a Powell Peralta Skull and Sword deck before it was stolen from his car during a rock concert. He later bought a used board from a friend but it turned out to be too big for him.
* Besides skating, Jason is also a novice Scuba diver. He took a class, trained at a Scuba school, and got his certification for fun, diving once or twice at Catalina Island in southern California with his friends.
* During his journey to obtaining his PhD for seven years, Jason worked with many different companies focusing on composite materials and project designs, one of them being the Mars Phoenix rover arm for NASA.     
* Jason's other hobbies besides robotic combat include: swing dancing, classic video games and pinball machines, racing go-karts, working on his cars and his home, playing with LEGO and learning French.
* Followed by one of his hobbies, he has a huge desire for arcade and pinball machines, one of them earning his title as an internationally ranked pinball player from Orange County, CA.
* Besides the Infernolab, he was also on Heisenberg Racing, an autocross team in 2009 that championed 13th place from a major event with Erwin, an upbeat 1991 BMW 318is.
*Jason's faviourite Marvel Avenger is Capitan America, according to his 2016 San Diego Comic Con album where he posed with Cap's shield while standing in a replicated LEGENDS box.
* His favorite fruit are bananas, as he is seen snacking on them once in a while during a BattleBots reboot match.
*Besides his personal robot music playlist, he also favors Japanese music, bands such as Shonen Knife, Pizzicato Five, and Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra. 
Battlebots-com videos.jpg|Featured on the thumbnail of a BattleBots special.
Battlebots-com videos 2.jpg|Another view of Jason on the BattleBots special.
Bardis lego master 00.jpg|Jason demonstrating Tesseract.
BB Magazine Dr. Inferno Jr.jpeg|Jason as Dr. Inferno Jr. (BB Magazine Vol 1)
Backyard Demo.jpg|Backyard demo with Dr. Inferno Jr..
BB00SF24.jpg|Jason meets up with Chuck Pitzer.
Bbash02.jpg|Jason and Christian Carlberg at Bot Bash.
Jason and Christian KCAL news.jpg|Jason and Christian during the KCAL news interview.
Jason and Christian Slugger.jpg|Jason and Christian during a photoshoot with Slugger.
Jason and Christian Slugger 2.jpg|Another view of Jason and Christian with Slugger.
Jason fixes Slugger.jpg|Dante gives out a helping hand.
Jason and 2A intro.PNG|Jason demonstrates 2A for an upcoming LEGO Mindstorms event.
Jason and 2A.PNG|Jason holding the RCX receivers to his LEGO bot.
Bot Bash Jason with Missing Link.jpg|Jason peeks through the table cloth in search of more tools.
Botbash Infernolab 2000.jpg|The Infernolab table at Botbash 2000.
Jason poses with Dr. Inferno.jpg|Jason poses with Dr. Inferno at Botbash 2000.
Jason guides Dr Inferno.jpg|Jason guides Dr. Inferno during Botbash 2000.
Jason with Overpowered Box (Bot Bash 2000).jpg|Jason gets Overpowered Box ready at BotBash 2000.
Breath of the Giant Nut.PNG|Jason marks his breath on the Giant Nut.
Polishing the Giant Nut.PNG|Jason polishes the Giant Nut with a small napkin.
Jason and Dr. Inferno 1.jpg|Jason poses with Dr. Inferno Jr. for UCSB's Daily Nexus.
Jason and Dr. Inferno Jr.jpg|Jason prepares the doctor for Season 5.0.
Jason and Hell on Wheels 1.jpg|Jason with Hell on Wheels during a photoshoot.
Jason and Hell on Wheels 2.jpg|The cool thing about 12lb bots is that you can pose with them.
Jason and Hell on Wheels 3.jpg|Aerial view of Hell on Wheels and Dante.
Jason and Hell on Wheels 4.jpg|The constipated yell in Glory of the Giant Nut.
Jason and his LELE figures!.PNG|Jason and his LEGO bots in the background.
Jason and Lauren 1.jpg|Jason and Lauren clad in their Infernolab shirts.
Jason and Mini Inferno!.jpg|Jason and Mini Inferno during Robotica Season 1.0.
Jason and Mini Inferno 2.jpg|Dante stands with Mini Inferno.
Lol! Jason! 2.PNG|Jason during Robotica.
Jason and TI!.jpg|Preparations before Season 5.0.
Flaming Dante.jpg|This is the Infernolab.
Towering Inferno stuffed in Rav4.jpg|Towering Inferno in Jason's car.
Towering Inferno BB Season 5.jpg|Towering Inferno relaxes outside in the parking lot.
Towering Inferno Intro 4.0.PNG|Towering Inferno's intro for Season 4.0.
Towering Inferno Intro 4.0 (2).PNG|Towering Inferno's intro for Season 4.0.
Towering Inferno Intro 4.0 (3).PNG|Towering Inferno's intro for Season 4.0.
Dncover Towering Inferno and Jason (Hi Res).jpg|Jason and Towering Inferno on the cover of the Design News magazine, April 2001.
Jason and Towering Inferno profile.jpg|Jason clad with shades and lighters, standing next to Towering Inferno during Season 3.0.
Jason and Byron BB Season 1.0.jpg|My brother Byron Bardis and sporting the team t-shirts. 
Jason goofing around.jpg|Jason holding the Missing Link's wheels after it's fight with Ziggo.
Jason and Dr. Inferno 4.jpg|Jason holds Dr. Inferno during Season 1.0.
Jason with Dr. Inferno 2.jpg|Dr. Inferno Jr. and Jason Bardis.
Jason with Dr. Inferno.jpg|Dr. Inferno Jr. and Jason Bardis.
Jason poses with the doctor.jpg|Jason poses with Dr. Inferno Jr. during Season 2.0.
Disappointed Jason.PNG|Jason disappointed at Dr. Inferno Jr. immobilized against Alpha Raptor during Season 1.0.
Jason and Dr. Inferno Jr BB Season 2.0.jpg|Jason with Dr. Inferno Jr. during Season 2.0.
Jason BB Lightweight rumble.PNG|Jason holds up his radio during the Season 2.0 Lightweight rumble.
Jason at Steel Conflict.jpg|Jason among a sea of bot builders at Steel Conflict.
Judge Jason Steel Conflict.jpg|Jason Bardis at Steel Conflict.
Jason at Sozbots.jpg|Jason at Sozbots 1.2 right before a match.
Jason fiddles with his radio controller.jpg|Jason fiddles with his radio controller during Sozbots 1.2.
Watching from the stands.jpg|Bardis seated among the group watching Sozbots 1.2. 
Jason at Target!.jpg|Jason Bardis with Dr. Inferno Jr. BattleBots toys.
Jason basking in glow of Dr. Inferno Jr.!.jpg|Jason basks in the glow of 6 Dr. Inferno Jrs.
Jason at BB Season 3.0.jpg|Jason Bardis preparing for Season 3.0.
Jason Bardis Dr. Inferno Jr. season 5.jpg|Jason and Dr. Inferno Jr. during Season 3.0.
Jason BattleBots article.jpg|Interview with Jason Bardis (BattleBots Magazine Vol. 3)
Jason wins the Giant Nut (Season 3.0).PNG|Jason hoists the Giant Nut during the Season 3.0 Lightweight Finals.
Jason be straight flexin!.PNG|Jason flexing his bot arms during a BattleBots special.
Jason rocks to his season 3 victory 2.PNG|Jason Bardis celebrating a Season 3.0 win.
Jason's Season 4.0 interview! 2.PNG|Jason's Season 4.0 interview.
Jason's intro BB Season 5.0.PNG|Jason's intro with Dr. Inferno Jr. during Season 5.0.
Jason's flashy entrance!.PNG|Dat flashy entrance during Season 5.0.
Happy Jason! 2.PNG|Jason smiling before facing Gamma Raptor during Season 5.0,
Jason thumbs up Season 5.0.PNG|Jason gives out a thumbs up before going up against Wedge of Doom.
Concerned Jason.PNG|Jason concerned at Wedge of Doom after its defeat to Dr. Inferno Jr.
Jason BB Season 5.0.jpg|Dante celebrates with Dr. Inferno Jr. during BB Season 5.0.
Giant Nut thumbs up!.jpg|Jason hoists the Giant Nut during Season 5.0.
Jason holding the Giant Nut!.PNG|Jason holds the Giant Nut after his Season 5.0 win.
BBSF01 Pits.jpg|A view of the Season 1.0 pits.
BBSF01 pits 2.jpg|Another view of the pits.
BBSF01 Missing Link.jpg|Jason and his team maintain The Missing Link during BB Season 1.0.
Jason and missing link2.jpg|Jason revs the ML's chainsaw in preparation for Battlebots season 1.0.
Hot and Dr. Inferno.jpg|Phil Putman and Jason Bardis with Air Burial and Dr. Inferno.
Crushed Dr Inferno.jpg|Jason holding a crushed Dr. Inferno during BB Season 1.0.
Crushed Dr. Inferno 2.jpg|Dr. Inferno after facing Ziggo.
Lounging outside.jpg|Jason relaxes outside the pyramid where BB 1999 was held at.
Jason relaxing with Missing Link.jpg|Jason poses with the Missing Link during a photoshoot.
Jason Dante Bardis - INFERNO.jpg|Jason Bardis on the cover story for SBNP.
Jason's bedroom!.jpg|Jason and his bots on the cover story for SBNP.
Independentshot1.jpg|Jason during a interview for Independent Magazine.
Lol! Jason at the arcade!.jpg|Jason at Gameworks Las Vegas during his Bachelor Party.
Jason at the Military Tank Grounds!.jpg|Jason visits a Military museum.
Jason's laptop!.jpg|3D CAD of Towering Inferno on Jason's laptop.
BB Calendar 1.jpg|Battlebots 2002 Calendar featuring Tazbot and Decimator. 
BB Calendar 2.jpg|An autographed page of Dr. Inferno Jr. and Gamma Raptor.
Devil ducks 1.png|Jason as a judge at FIRST Robotics regional competition.
Jason with Rampage.jpg|Jason posing with Rampage during Robot Wars 1996.
Bweijason.jpg|Jason Bardis during Robot Wars 1997.
Jason builds 2A.jpg|Jason with tons of LEGO in his parent's basement.
Jason's LEGO bots.jpg|Prototype bot, controller and original working model of Towering Inferno.
LEGO Mindstorms 1.jpg|Jason at LEGO Mindstorms 1999.
LEGO Mindstorms 3.jpg|Pretty short remote control range required contortions.
LEGO Mindstorms 4.jpg|The nimbler Donkey trying to turn off 2A from behind.
Jason at USCB Game Show.jpg|Jason at a UCSB Game Show on TV.
Missing Link demo.jpg|Jason demonstrates Dr. Inferno at SORC.
Jason SORC Show and Tell Dr. Inferno 2.jpg|Jason at SORC Show and Tell with Dr. Inferno.
Jason's slide for a UCSB presentation.jpg|Introduction slide to Jason's UCSB Mechanical Engineering presentation.
Jason's flyer for RoboChallenge Seminar.jpg|Page 2 of the flyer for the RoboChallenge BattleBots and Robotics Seminar.
Robo challenge Jason and Dr. Inferno Jr..jpg|Jason guides the doctor during Robo challenge.
Robo challenge Jason and Dr. Inferno Jr. 2.jpg|Jason kneels while driving the doctor around.
Jason shakes hands at LEGO Tug O War.jpg|Jason shakes hands with a student during a LEGO Tug O War event.
Jason's presentation at UCSB.jpg|Jason gives out one of his presentations at USCB.
Jason at 2002 LEGO Tug O War.jpg|Jason at a LEGO Tug-o-War event.
Jason at Robo Games 2005.jpg|Jason Bardis at RoboGames 2005.
Jason at high school robot event.jpg|Jason at a high school robot event.
Infernolab pit 1.jpg|Infernolab's pit during a 2009 event.
Jason fixes Vlad the Impaler 2.0.jpg|Jason helps to fix Vlad the Impaler 2.0.
Jason with another bot.jpg|Jason with another unknown bot during a 2009 bot event.
LEGODante.jpg|Dante as a LEGO Minifig.
LEGO Dante and Dr. Inferno Jr..jpg|LEGO Dante and Dr. Inferno Jr.
Jason's cash inferno!.jpg|Jason at the casino, scoring in Cash Inferno.
Disk O Inferno profile with Jason.PNG|Disk O'Inferno profile with Jason.
Jason's intro during BB season 2.PNG|Jason's intro during BattleBots World Championship II.
Swanky dancin Dante!.gif|Jason dancing prior to a judges' decision.
Jason after the fight against Chomp.PNG|Jason after the battle with Chomp.
DoI showcase Korean video platform.jpg|Disk O' Inferno's fight showcased on a Korean video site.
Jason contemplates his loss.PNG|Jason contemplates his loss against Chomp.
Jason at 2016 SD Comic Con 2.jpg|Jason Bardis and Peppa Pig at Comic Con 2016.
EPHGraphixDoI.jpg|The Disk O'Inferno poster with Jason Bardis flaming a disco ball.
Jason Reddit AMA 1.jpg|Jason's announcement for a Reddit AMA with the other BattleBots judges.
Scorecard.jpg|Jason Bardis' scorecard for a 2020 season BattleBots match which went the distance.
Jason's Infernolab coat!.jpg|Jason's Infernolab coat during Season 3.0.
Jason's Infernolab coat Season 5.0.jpg|Jason's Infernolab coat during Season 5.0.
Jason's Lanyards.jpg|A collection of lanyards.
Jason's Battlebots Judge card!.jpg|Jason's official judging card for the reboot seasons.
== See Also==
* Team Infernolab website
* Infernolab's Youtube channel
*Infernolab Facebook Page
*His UCSB Engineering site (archived)
* Jason's profile on Heisenberg Racing
== References ==
Category:BattleBots Personalities
Category:Judges