Robots on the Rise

By Lawrence Holloway

Moving limbs with your mind? Sounds like a fantasy, or something out of science fiction, but it's
actually happening at CRECs Academy of Aerospace and Engineering High School. Angela
Marinello, a CREC Greater Hartford Academy of Math and Science senior from Avon, CT is
making an arm that will be controlled using the brain. The field she is working with is
neuroprosthetics, which is controlling your body movements with thought. This is Marinellos
independent research project that she is collaborating with Evan Faulkner, a senior from
Coventry CT, at CRECs Academy of Aerospace and Engineering High School. Faulkner built
the arm in fifty hours, and is mainly involved in the project as an advisor to Marinello because of
his background in mechanical engineering. He taught me to connect A to B, said Marinello.
Falkner will be attending the University of Connecticut in the fall as a mechanical engineering
and math major. Marinello began with a kit developed by students at the University of Pittsburg
through a program called Backyard Brains that allows other students to build prosthetics that
send electrical impulses to muscles. This project is being overseen by mentor Dr. Michelle
Bellinger, a CREC Academy of Aerospace and Engineering physics teacher. Marinello was
already interested in the subject of neuroscience, but Dr. Bellinger emphasized that, If you want
an upper hand in college, you need an independent research project, and that was just the little
kick she needed to get her project off the ground. Marinello will be attending the University of
Pittsburg in the fall.