Fearless Ferrets flummoxed

Well, after a long day of demos, more demos, judges interviews and presentation this past Saturday, our Fearless Ferrets are forlorn. Fuzzy, their robot, performed well in development but when the chips were down he flaked out. Near as our post-op diagnostics can determine we fell prey to errant infrared signals from other teams beaming programs to their bots while we were doing the same from our laptop. Once we figured out the reason for the ghosts in our machine, we were at the 3rd, final round of tasks and a change of batteries was called for. We had a choice: tear the robot apart to install fresh batteries to power motors and movement sequences that had been tweaked to compensate for diminishing power (and confusion). Or, take our chances. Since the kids figured Fuzzy probably would have flipped himself into orbit or smashed though the LEGO table he was supposed to be placing a tray of LEGO "food" on, we figured we'd leave well enough alone. Too bad. Fuzzy's best round managed 2 of the 5 tasks he was programmed for, the first two rounds managing none and then one. That put us too far down in the points to send us to State finals at Virginia Tech in December, no matter how well we did on the other segments of the day.

And therein lay the day's bright spot: As mentioned, we thought our research and presentation rocked, and so did the judges. Altough Fisher's real mascot is a Flamingo (yeah, I know) they decided on Ferrets for this event for reasons of resourcefulness inquisitiveness and, yes, fearless wayfinding and pushing of boundaries. They wove a great and uplifting rationale with fact and story and found the heroic in being physically challenged without being maudlin or patronizing. And, out of the 22 teams, they pulled Second Place! Yay, Ferrets! Not bad at all for a team of dog-and-pony novices in a very experienced field.

But fear not, and don't cry for them, Argentina Falkland Islands....(sorry) ....still full of fight and fortitude, a new Fisher Team (Fruitbats? Fungi? Fungoes?), and maybe a Fuzzy 2.0, will be back. And this time, it's personal! (What am I saying? It's always personal.)