Ideas are better when you can hold them

I'm Mehrdad Shariatmadari, a Grade 12 student in Toronto aiming for mechatronics engineering, the place where mechanical design, electronics, and code have to meet.

Most of my time goes to FRC Team 7902, where I help lead the manufacturing subdivision and drive at competition. The rest goes into build projects: a music box and a wearable chopstick I designed on my own, and a gesture-controlled drone I built with a friend.

The rest of the week is lifeguarding for the City of Toronto, tutoring, and playing in my school's music program. The Kalimbinator came out of that last one: I wanted a machine that could play a phrase I liked, so I spent six rounds of CAD working out how to make a drum pluck it.