Disclaimer: Some of the events depicted in this sequence were modified to fit your screen. Viewer discretion is advised.

Today the Evergreen Valley High School quad experienced something that it had never experienced before. It was touched by the angelic wheels of the Prototype…or something like that. Essentially, the team had its first ‘official’ lunch demonstration!

After sneaking out of first period with Jeff and Jackie (and David Yang, for some reason…) to talk to Leadership a few days earlier, we were ready to get all of our assets out on the cold, hard asphalt. Yesterday, we wheeled in all of our assets into an unassuming computer science class while some kid kept on bothering Jeffrey about his bike. After we got everything ready, we went to sleep and got ready for the day ahead of us.

When lunch came around on that Wednesday, the weather was fine, and the team was assembled. The bell rang, and students came running out of thier classes trying to snag the front of the lunch line. The demonstration area was taped and chaired off, and we were ready to begin.

We flipped on the Prototype in the sunny summer weather. Eric wiped the beady drops of sweat off of his brow. The quad was loaded with thousands of beady little eyes, ready to see and critique anything and everything that was about to go down. Eric grabbed the joysticks, Jackie and Jeff threw out some of our orbit balls, Hubert kneeled down slowly, and Jeffrey wheeled away the cart.

Eric yanked the sticks forward and the robot was off! The machine gave off a loud whirring noise as it came to life. The leadership representative grabbed a mic and shouted “Whooo!” and we were off. Eric drove around the quad, picking up balls and shooting them off into our trailer. The crowd cheered, and a line of people who wanted to drive the beast started. One after another, people wrapped thier clammy fingers around the joysticks and ran the robot around in circles, lines, and squares (oh my!). There was even a dance off between the robot and one of the members of the Four Elements club (The robot won, of course). After thirty-five minutes of non-stop action-packed demonstrating, we packed up our things and left, heroes.

Luckily, none of our balls were stolen. There were a few characters who tried, but Jeffrey and Brian beat them down with their iron knuckles. The drivers were from all walks of life too. There were the nerdy, reserved type who tentatively inched the robot forward milimeter by milimeter and the pompous, ‘cool’ type that went into dizzying spins right away! All in all, the event was a success, and hopefully we got some well-deserved media coverage in the process!

Live long and prosper! c\\//

-Jeffrey Yu

Last Updated August 19, 2009