Old Rochester Regional High School senior Nicole Mattson has grabbed herself an ‘A’ for her senior project in Tom Norris’ Intro to Engineering class – a robotic claw she printed from the school’s 3D printer, assembled, and programmed to open and close on its own.

A lot of time, sweat, and brainpower were involved for Mattson as she mastered the multitude of tedious steps to bring her robotic claw to life, so to speak. And as all the other students in the class completed a final exam at the end of the course, Mattson, “practically the only girl in the class,” she said, was showing off her alternative final she designed, built, and executed herself.

“I think a lot of people in class were jealous because I got to play with the 3D printer,” joked Mattson. “They probably doubted that I was making something interesting.”

Biology has always fascinated Mattson. “The science behind living things is so interesting for me,” she said. She sees a future in bioengineering and developing prosthetic limbs, which is reflected in her choice of building a robotic claw for her senior project.

The claw is assembled from over a dozen plastic pieces printed from the 3D printer and lots of glue. A few nuts and bolts hold together the joints that enable the claw’s pincers to open and close at a programmed interval of however many seconds Mattson desires.

There was a lot involved in the process, however, and after the design steps were completed, including the cardboard model, Mattson was permitted to take the 3D printer home over the four-day Martin Luther King Day weekend, and thus began a period of trials and errors galore.

“There was a lot of file converting,” said Mattson. She found a 2D image of a claw she liked online, and converted the image into a three-dimensional design.

She spent hours upon hours printing the plastic parts and solving a number of technical difficulties like clogged plastic cartridges and recalibrating the printer.

“It’s not like a regular printer with paper,” said Mattson. “It’s a little more complicated.”

From home, Mattson printed out piece after piece, some taking 30 minutes and others up to four hours.

“My parents must have hated it,” said Mattson. “It made so much noise in our house.”

Some pieces only printed out halfway and had to be redone, and every trial, every error, was a test of patience and perseverance. But she always figured it out, she said.

“There was always something,” said Mattson.

Assembly took a lot of glue. “Lots and lots of glue,” she recalled.

“Then I had to program it. This was a very long process.”

She programmed the claw’s “servo,” a small motor with integrated gears, by connecting it with an “arduino,” a simple microcontroller board, which Mattson said “tells something else what to do.”

“That took a lot of time and energy because I didn’t know the angles it needed to open and close,” Mattson said. That night before, she was still tinkering with it before it was ready to present to Mr. Norris. “I turned it on and the servo just started to spin.” Not exactly what Mattson had wanted it to do, “So, I had to adjust the angles.”

Norris said Mattson was the first student to use the 3D printer for a final project. He recalled when Mattson first learned the school actually had a 3D printer and how excited she was.

“She pretty much did everything on her own,” said Norris. Given the nature of the project relative to Mattson’s interest in developing prostheses in the future, he called the project and its use of the 3D printer “a real world application.”

According to Norris, the engineering program at ORR really hadn’t quite adopted a specific direction in regards to integrating use of the 3D printer into the curriculum. “And then Nicole came along,” Norris said.

Mattson has been accepted into Worcester Polytechnical Institute, but has not yet settled on a placement.

By Jean Perry

For Mattapoisett teenager and Old Rochester Regional Junior High student Patrick Igoe, mornings are for practice, afternoons are for practice, and evenings are for practice – practicing the bass, that is. At just 13, he already has an impressive musical resume, but more than anything else, right now he’s hoping to find likeminded musicians in the area to form a group.

Born into a family of musicians – from the classically trained to those enjoying and playing pop tunes – Patrick’s life has always been filled with music. Since the age of 5 when he received his first instrument, a guitar, Patrick has passionately worked at perfecting his craft.

“He basically taught himself how to play the guitar,” says James Igoe proudly, Patrick’s dad. And early on, his parents recognized something more about Patrick. They saw a person who is gifted musically.

By the fourth grade, at Dad’s urging, Patrick moved to the upright acoustic and electric bass guitars. As Dad tells it, “There are so few really good bass players, and it’s important as the backbone of any band. I thought he’d have more opportunities with that instrument.” Four years later, Patrick has become one of the best young bassists in the region.

Igoe’s days are filled with all the normal activities of being a teenager – attending school and doing homework – but the rest of the time, he is 100 percent committed to improving his musical chops. To that end, his parents put miles on the family car.

Patrick is a member of the New Bedford Youth Sympathy Orchestra, Acushnet Classic Ensemble, and Cape Cod Conservatory C-Jazz band. He has played at First Night events in Chatham and has a regular gig every third Sunday of the month at the Riverway in South Yarmouth with Bart Weisman’s Jazz Jam. Now, with the support of his family, he wants to bring jazz music to the local area.

“He would like to form a youth jazz group locally … to share his love of jazz with his peers and the community,” Mom Joan Cremins said. “I work in behavioral health … music heals and helps our youth to express themselves.” Cremins continued, “Our community needs more positive outlets for teenagers to relate to one another.”

As for Patrick, jazz is part of the fabric of his life.

“You can improvise, it’s creative, there’s just something about jazz!” He said that the sheet music bass players receive for jazz compositions are sparse. “Just a few bars. You improvise the rest.” That ability to create from one’s own imagination and musical capabilities inspires Patrick to continuously explore jazz themes.

On February 6, the Igoe family will be at Berkley School of Music to watch a group of young musicians from Cape Cod participate in a music competition. The composition is geared to high school students. Patrick’s talent gained him a slot with the Cape Cod All Stars who will be participating in the event. And where does he intend to go to college? Berkley, of course.

For all his accomplishments, Patrick is a quiet kid off stage, but talk to him about jazz and he shines.

“I really wish I could find some kids or even adults to play with locally,” he shared. Patrick is hoping local musicians might be interested in forming a jazz band. He can be reached at pdjazz14@gmail.com.

By Marilou Newell