Team 568 was extremely excited to be able to participate in this pilot program in 2007! We set aside a separate little team to be primarily in charge of the Green Machine program at Dimond last year.

The Green Machine Competition is where living in Alaska has yet again presented problems for our team. Due to some shipping issues, we received our kit two weeks after the other teams did. In short, the kit was first shipped from Chicago to Washington state, then back to Chicago, and then finally to Anchorage. Since the kit contained hazardous materials, it had to be shipped via ground, which added a considerable about of time to shipping. Alaska is about a 3000-some mile drive from San Francisco, so the kit traveled an estimated 8,800 miles! Once we got the kit, we realized the instructional dvd was missing, so we still couldn't start working!

However, because of our numerous setbacks, FIRST and FIRST Fuel Cells were gracious enough to give us an extension of some of our deadlines which we desperately needed.

We were able to complete the kit on our final deadline, and we hooked it up to our 2006 bot and tested it. It only put out around 2 Amps, but it was still impressive nonetheless. We just wish they had this program again this year because it was such a cool experience for everyone to be on the cutting edge of new energy sources. 

Below, you can see our rushing to get it inside and started after the long wait for the kit.