Junkyard Minigolf at Soar Tech

My son the research scientist at Soar Technology writes:

I led our HCI (Human/Computer Interface) sector in a round of junkyard minigolf at lunch today.

The cool rule on that course was the 'stopping rule.'

The ball was a super-ball. It had a tendency to bounce, and the walls weren't high enough. So you were allowed to put your finger on it while it was still rolling to stop it and then flick it from there.

The other course was on the floor. We used two 'balls' - the rubber brains my company uses for marketing. They don't roll well at all. Our clubs were whiteboard markers and a whiteboard eraser, clicked together and taped (the tape was a baaaad idea). We had an obstacle on the floor, and a ramp, and a thing you had to hit, and somethings you had to go between.

The cool rule there was that, rather than trying to get it in the hole in the fewest hits, the goal was the shortest time. We had two people going at once - a race (sort of like curling, but not at all). One of the most fun parts of that was when your club broke. It got a little too hectic, but there was a lot of laughing.

A difference between the two groups that was particularly cool was the way the team worked together. On the table, in the small, they basically had to take turns changing the course and changing rules. In contrast, on the floor, in the larger, we iterated over a lot of possible holes, balls, courses, rules, etc.

(btw, our first attempt was one of us on an office chair as the ball, the other person pushed the chair, thus being the golfer and the golfclub at the same time)

It was a lot of fun!