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Easton LaChappelle

TEEN INVENTOR

From Boredom to Inspiration

33 Easton LaChappelle was just an ordinary 14-year-
old student, bored in class, when he came up with
an idea for something remarkable. He wanted to
do something special with a 3D printer he had at
home, and he decided to try to make a robotic arm.
His creation, made from fishing line and plastic
blocks, using his 3D printer, was displayed at the

2011 Colorado state science fair, and Easton
received the third-place prize.
34 The prize wasn’t the most memorable part of the
fair for Easton, though. While at the fair, he met a
7-year-old girl who had a prosthetic arm. The hand
on this arm could only open and close in a single
kind of grip, and it cost $80,000. Easton was

Today, many manufacturers shocked—and determined to overcome these hurdles
can create prostheses using of cost and functionality. He made it his goal to create
3D printers. a prosthetic arm that would cost less than $1,000.

A Helpful Invention

35 Easton hoped to make a prosthetic arm that could be
controlled by the user’s mind. It’s not science fiction to
imagine that this is possible; in fact, there was a
children’s game that Easton was aware of in which the

player could move a foam ball up and down using a
headset that measured his or her brain waves. Easton
bought the game, took it apart, and figured out how it
worked. He applied the same principles to the
prosthetic arm he built.

hurdles Hurdles are barriers or obstacles to success.

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