Farmbot

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Farmbot is the most likely replacement for the Chief Illiniwek Mascot at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He combines an old emphasis on agriculture and a new path towards engineering and technology - two big subjects at UIUC. He is a robot mascot that has several entertaining capabilities. He has a corn cannon that shoots corn on the cob to pump up the crowd. He also wears an Abraham Lincoln style hat that shoots fireworks out. He has a Jet pack that allows him to fly around while simultaneously popping popcorn over the crowd. Early concerns of having a robot run amok and possibly lash out or malfunction cause the first prototype to be a student dressed up in a Farmbot suit. He started off as an idea from an alumnus of UIUC named Thomas Jonathan Abram even while Chief Illniwek was the mascot to resolve concerns over racially degrading mascots. Several people have noted that Farmbot has no racial stereotypes and is generally politically correct. He has been described as "as soft as metal can get," and students around campus have hugged him and embraced him as their new mascot. While this idea started as an underground operation, the idea has grown and Farmbot was suggested to be the Illiniwek replacement by at least two seniors from the graduating undergraduate class of 2007. This was more than any of the other potentials such as having the Chefs or the Dinosaurs replace the old mascot. Using the Chefs and "dropping the I, it's just lazy" and their isn't really a culinary history at the UIUC. There isn't really a connection with the Dinosaurs and UIUC either, as pioneer Thomas Abram has mentioned. He has become much more popular due to a recent youTube video called An Argument For Farmbot, produced by Sean Laude, in which Farmbot gallivants around campus and brings joy to the public. He still has not been officially recognized as the mascot.