Easton LaChappelle made his first mechanical hand out of LEGOs, fishing wire and surgical tubing at the age of 14, and he kept improving the design with 3D-printed parts. An encounter with a 7-year-old girl at a science fair, whose prosthetic arm costs $80,000 (and would need to be replaced when she outgrew it), inspired him to turn his prototype into a real, affordable technology.

Not only were his designs amazing, but his young age, combined with the fact that everything he knew about robotics was self-taught, got him a lot of buzz.

His latest prosthetic, which controls movement via brainwave measurements, costs under $400 and could change the lives of amputees. Everyone is excited about this innovation, from the armed forces, who plan to use the prosthetic to carry out bomb defusing missions, to Heineken, which has already bought thousands of arms from LaChappelle to serve beer at bars.

Robotics, TED, Science, Innovation, Technology, STEM