Lennoxville student wows science fair with self-made invention
By William Crooks
Local Journalism Initiative
A Lennoxville student has captured the top prize at the Quebec final of the Super Expo-Sciences Hydro-Québec with a robotic invention that may one day help defuse bombs, repair spacecraft, or bring surgery to remote areas.
Champlain College Lennoxville student Mateo Jarquin earned the highest distinction from judges at the provincial-level competition for his “F.L.E.X.” project—short for “Fully Leveraged EXO Hand.” The device is a 3D-printed robotic hand that mimics real human hand movements in real time, using just a camera and Wi-Fi connection.
“It’s able to detect your joints and fingertips, calculate the distance between them, and translate that into motor movement,” said Jarquin. “The robotic hand copies what you do with very little delay”.
The win secures Jarquin a spot on Team Quebec at the national Canada-Wide Science Fair, which will take place in Fredericton from May 31 to June 7. He also received a $1,500 scholarship, a trophy, and a trip for two to James Bay. In addition, he won a gold medal in the college category from the Réseau Technoscience and the Université du Québec Relève scientifique scholarship, which covers full tuition for bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral studies within the university network.
Jarquin, who was born in Sherbrooke and studied at SES, Alexander Galt, and now Champlain College, is currently enrolled in a general science program. He first presented a prototype of the robotic hand two years ago but was unsatisfied with its limitations.
“This new version has metal-gear servos, better software, and improved materials,” he explained. “The outside is printed using a strong CTG filament, while the inside uses TPU, a flexible plastic that allows the fingers to actually bend like a human hand”.
The system works by placing a camera near a user’s hand—either mounted on a stationary stand or worn on the shoulder by a small robot companion Jarquin calls “Pico.” The camera tracks the hand movements, and software calculates the angles of each finger joint before transmitting the data to motors inside the robotic hand, which replicates the motions almost instantaneously.
