It seems like a lot for a 15-year-old to handle, but this one is doing just fine with it. Easton LaChappelle, who will be a sophomore at Mancos High School this fall, has come up with a science fair project that likely will take him far in life.
LaChappelle started here at the local science fair with his wireless animatronic hand and won first place. He brought the project to a board meeting to show the board what hed put together, and they were impressed.
Then he went to the regional science fair in Durango and won fourth place overall. Since the winners of fifth place and above were allowed to go to the state science fair, thats where he went next.
The state fair was in Fort Collins, and LaChappelle won third place there in the engineering category.
I was the only freshman on stage with the winners, he said.
At the regional science fair in Durango, he was chosen to go the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) in Los Angeles as an observer in May. It is the worlds largest international pre-college science competition, according to their website.
There were over 1,500 projects there and 5,000 middle school kids, LaChappelle said. It was great. I did experiments and met Bill Nye, the science guy.
LaChappelle also went to Mt. Wilson Observatory and Universal Studios while he was in L.A.
His wireless animatronic hand might not seem unique, but LaChappelle said he didnt see anything like his at the ISEF.
I saw other robotic projects, but nothing to the extent that mine is, he said.
His project involves a glove that he puts on his own hand with which he can then control the animatronic hand. He wanted to be able to control the hand in real time with his own movements, so he put flex sensors onto the glove and wired them to a custom Arduino board. By looking at anatomical drawings, he was able to create the hand making the finger joints move like a real one. Fishing line connected to each finger is used to flex each finger.
LaChappelle built the project with parts from www.sparkfun.com, a website that has helped him in his endeavors. He is featured on that site and others, such as hackaday.com and www.themakerlist.com, where you can post your achievements. He has even posted a video of his project on YouTube.
His latest triumph is an interview with the people from Popular Mechanics, a magazine that features science, home improvements, automotive stuff and do-it-yourself projects.
They came and talked to me for a while, he said. They said they were going to have a Backyard Genius feature in the fall that I am going to be in.
LaChappelle admits that hes had strong leanings toward math and science, but he never thought that Popular Mechanics would contact him for an interview.
This was just something I was going to do for myself, he said, but Im up for the challenge.
His project can be seen on the sparkfun website as well as on YouTube.