An engineering fiend and “fairly funky” artist, the Renaissance man, senior Marc Goupil, has a knack for making people laugh with both “inappropriate and appropriate humor.”  There are no such things as boundaries for this man of engineering and art, science and romance. His passion for both areas is reflected in his four-year dedication to the robotics team and commitment to one of the campus’ art clubs, Club Ampersand.

Robotics
Marc describes the robotics lifestyle as time-consuming and one of “seclusion.” The aspiring engineer claims that robotics was never “his calling,” but rather an outlet.

“I was never really interested in robotics before I joined the robotics team,” Marc said. “But I did like working with my hands and doing design, and the robotics team was the only real option to do that at the school.”

A member of the robotics team since his freshman year, Marc has worked his way up from arm and manipulator designing to team captain. His responsibilities as captain during competition season involve design oversight as well as some administrative duties.

According to Michael Corsetto, last year’s team captain, Marc was “an obvious choice for the position of captain.”

“He was my go-to guy for anything I needed done and was willing to do all the work I didn’t have time for or simply didn’t want to do,” Michael said. “He always had a joke for every situation, be it appropriate or inappropriate. His ability to work with anyone on the team and his maturity  in high-stress situations are excellent qualities that made him perfect for the position. Overall, he’s a driven and dedicated guy with an amazing sense of humor.”

In the past three years that Marc has participated on the robotics team, the group has been an active competitor in three For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) regionals.FIRST is the organization that sponsors the robotics competitors. These competitions have taken place in Portland, Oregon, San Jose and Sacramento in previous years.

Art
A student in Studio Art AP and an active member of Club Ampersand, the school’s “premier bohemian” art group, Marc claims to specialize in “funky art.” His range is ‘limitless,” an aspect of Marc’s work that his Studio Art AP teacher Christine An loves.

“He doesn’t have one distinct style,” An said. “He can adapt to anything and make it his own. He has a creativity and humor that accompanies his artwork. He has his own way of thinking, very eccentric. But he’s extremely polite and has a philosophical view on life. He’s very intelligent and he thinks about things in such an abstract and abnormal fashion, you never know what’s really going on in his head. It’s just so different.”

According to friend and classmate senior Lisa Kellman, Marc doesn’t think on the same brainwave as everybody else.

“He’s crazy,” Lisa said. “He’s in his own world and thinks on a different level than anybody else. He should wear a shirt that says ‘no rules.’ That’s his motto.”

Plans for the Future
Marc will be attending Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (SLO) beginning next fall. Marc chose Cal Ploy SLO because he wanted to attend a college where engineering students are “rock stars.”

“A state college with a world-renowned engineering program seems like the ticket,” Marc said.

Marc plans to go into mechanical engineering and is think of working with aerial drones.