Lieutenant Dan stands almost five feet tall with shiny metal parts, it has wheel attachments resembling human hands and legs. It may look like the best robot in A208 but that is not the case.

Lieutenant Dan was purchased at a website called Pitsco, it cost $6,999 online. It comes as a kit and students put together the pieces. Last year students arranged all of the pieces. Unfortunately the students have not been able to use a program that will help Lieutenant Dan move, but they hope to develop a program soon. It just stands there, but it commands a lot of attention.

“It’s not my favorite robot. I like when students have more of a problem and solution situation and they have to make a robot from scratch,”  CATE teacher Yvette  Edwards Brown said. “It’s their ideas, their design.”

Despite Lieutenant Dan’s inability to move he is transported to big events  for recruiting purposes.

“It took a lot of time to assemble it together, more than we expected, but it was worth the work and practice,” senior Emmanuel Oyervides said. “And it shows how fun this program can be.”

Alongside Lieutenant Dan are other robots. Most were invented by the students with the assistance of Edwards Brown and CATE teacher Martin Armendariz. Armendariz has three robots in storage that the students made, one of them is amazingly huge and they took it to competition at Waco, Texas. In contrast to Lieutenant Dan, these robots were made by students who used different parts. They also designed the software to make the robots functional.  

“These kids made a lot of good work with these robots,” Armendariz said. “ It’s not just the appearance that counts, it’s the work and ideas that are invested in these robots that make the students progress, and learn more.”

Correction: Lieutenant Dan is able to move. Last year Emmanuel Oyervides and Enrique Vasquez wrote a program in C language giving Lieutenant Dan the ability to move.