Some would say Leo spent an average amount of time obtaining his degree. He was in college two years, after all. Which would have been normal, had the degree he finished with been an associate's degree. But Leo spent his first year in IET obtaining his Bachelor's. And the next year, Leo transferred to Cambridge, where he received his Doctorate's degree at the age of eighteen.
But we're getting ahead of ourselves here.
Leo had only just arrived at IET. His future unsure but his perseverance unwavering, he stepped onto the beautiful campus of the Institute for Engineering and Technology. He smiled brightly at the world, looking up at the old buildings of the school. The sun shone on his back, warming him pleasantly, while a gentle breeze rustled the elegant landscaping of the campus and blew away lingering, excess heat. All was right in the world.
Then he stepped in gum.
Leo stumbled around, dragging his foot on the cobblestone to attempt to scratch off his sticky passenger. He tripped backwards into the grassy quad, his books falling around him. He stared up into the sky, squinting at the suddenly too bright sun. His embarrassment made him feel hot, the breeze was now insufficient. His perseverance even wavered a bit. Collecting his things and attempting to brush the loose grass from the back of his shirt, he continued his sticky journey to his first class for the day.
He sat through monotonous, redundant introductory classes, as teachers went through syllabi, explaining what they expected from each student and what they planned on teaching that year. Leo immediately resigned to update his schedule for more advanced classes. He had already read about many of the subjects. He silently praised God for CLEP tests. Only one teacher began teaching, therefore Leo decided that was his favorite class. And it just happened to be an advanced robotics class.
"Skill to do comes from doing!" The teacher, Dr. Waikato, an elderly Japanese man, recited emphatically. "Ralph Waldo Emerson said that. Now I say that. This is moto for my class. This is also syllabus. This is also schedule. We will practice, practice, practice. Now. Let us start. Has anyone ever built robot before?" He hardly gave time for an answer. "No? Then I tell you all I know." He began his speech, covering everything from servos, VB Software, and accelerometers, speaking emphatically, enthusiastically, and even in a slightly harsh manner at times. Whenever he asked a question, he moved on too quickly, so that no one could answer. This frustrated Leo, and he listened intently so he could shout his answer when the next question arose. "So, that being said, what does the software allow for?"
"To generate motion-patters, review them and view actual sensor data." Leo said, his voice heard clearly through the room, since he was sitting in the middle of the lecture hall.
"Excuse me?" Dr. Waikato asked, obviously offended. The other students perked up at the change of pace. The room became so quiet, Leo heard the last student finishing notes he may or may not have understood, and then drop his pen. Leo mustered up the courage to answer his professor.
"You—you asked a question, sir." His voice cracked, but he cleared his throat, lowering his voice and steeling his nerves. "I just answered it." He took a deep breath, hoping he hadn't taken it too far. He quickly added, "If—if that's okay?"
"Well, Mister—what is your name?"
"Fitz, sir. Leopold Fitz." There was some laughter from the back of the room.
"Well Mr. Fitz, from now on, if I ask a question, I want you to answer it in your mind. I don't know how they do things in primary school you come from, but here we do not do distractions." Dr. Waikato spat the words and stared at Leo for a little, and a small smile tugged at his face. "You are new favorite." He added, the looked back up at the rest of his students. "Be smart like Fitz here. Go far." He continued his lecture.
"Yes sir," Leo replied in unison with the rest of the class, trying not to be too enthusiastic.
When class was over, Leo stayed after, letting everyone leave before him for two strategic reasons. The first was to show his inventions to Dr. Waikato, the second was to avoid any hallway harassment. He approached his teacher.
"You go to next class, I am busy now." He said, as he loaded papers into his worn out brief case, exposing the rarely seen worn wood of his desk only known to exist in theory due to the consistent clutter of paper and robotic tools.
"My next class isn't until after lunch, sir. I was just going to show you my inventions. I had a question on the wiring for the kinematic chains." Leo moved around to the side of the desk, pushing his note book forward. Dr. Waikato slammed his hand on the notebook and gave Leo a deadly stare.
"Fitz, I told you—" he glanced at the notebook under his hand. "Oh, well this an easy fix. See this link? Just compute the actuator forces and torques. You know how to do that?"
And that was how Leo ended up having private tutoring during his lunch breaks. Sure, some of the older kids teased him for being a suck-up, teacher's pet, and a know-it-all in the halls. But Leo never felt offended by any of them. A lot of them were wearing pocket protectors and horn-rimmed glasses. Who were they to talk?
There was nothing more satisfactory to Leo than learning everything he could. His Geometry 110, Physics, and Trig teachers all praised his work highly, and were often times found themselves corrected by Leo, if they made even the smallest mistakes. When asked how he knew these things, his answer was either "Dr. Waikato" or "I read it somewhere". He never felt like the "where" in somewhere was important. All that mattered was that he knew everything.
AN: Thanks to the internet, for providing me with these random robot physics terms. I tried to use them accurately as possible, but I'm no rocket scientist… or robot scientist… Review, review, review! Let me know what you want to see more of for Fitz's few college years.