[Jon Stratis]

Prototyping really is the most creative part of what we do. You have a concept of what you want it to do, and you basically get to look around the shop and find parts you can stick together quickly in order to get it done. For example, last year our shooter prototype went very quickly - some shafts from a previous robot, old kitbot wheels taped in place (after all, securing them to the shaft for a live axle setup "properly" would have been too time consuming!), and two 2x4's with holes drilled in them. Then we just clamped the drills onto the shafts and ran it! All said, maybe an hour start to finish, which included discussion time and investigation in back spin before we were ready to show the rest of the team.