[Pat Major]

In addition to the type of great moments you describe, we also had these special moments.

When Dean talked about the prosthetic arm that his team had developed. We thought....we have had a prosthetic arm of our own design and construction in our pit for the last two years (ours is just a LITTLE less complex) but when demonstrating it we also pick up a water bottle. We visited our local hospital and demonstrated it to the prosthetics department. We also toured and enjoyed a demonstration of their equipment. I commented, more than once, to team members that Jay TenBrink (arm designer) was having a great deal of fun with the arm at this event. It was good to see him relaxing and enjoying himself.

Next Dean spoke about his mystery guest; was I surprised to see that it was the head of DARPA explaining the DARPA Grand Challenge. If you go to the DARPA website and look at the team list, you will find a team called the “Martian Mentors”. Yes, a group of Martian mentors had entered the Grand Challenge months ago. We have a full sized autonomous vehicle that uses an Edubot/VEX controller as an interface, our control board looks just like any FIRST robot, and uses victors and spikes.

It was very strange/rewarding to see two of the things we have been working on, be part of the focus of the presentation.

We renewed many old friendships and made new ones.

We look forward to next year, and the challenges it will bring.

Hope to see you at IRI, maybe we will bring our autonomous DARPA vehicle.