Finalist in national Skills Bright Sparks competition, Matthew Shepherd of Napier, with the Scratch Pack device he has designed and built to soothe sore backs. Photo / Warren Buckland
Finalist in national Skills Bright Sparks competition, Matthew Shepherd of Napier, with the Scratch Pack device he has designed and built to soothe sore backs. Photo / Warren Buckland
For Taradale High School student and aspiring mechatronics creator Matthew Shepherd the inspiration for his first tilt at design and construction was inspired by a pain in the back.
And the pains in the backs of some of his schoolmates.
And the creator of those occasional pains... overweight school bags.
The 17-year-old said he has long had a passion for the world of mechanics and electronics and had always wanted to design and create something a little out of the ordinary.
"Always played around with circuit boards and stuff like that," was how he put it.
The idea emerged at school, and was something several schoolmates agreed with. The weight of their bags sometimes led to sore backs, and it's not easy to massage the centre of one's back.
He did a bit of research and found that a school backpack should only weigh around 10 to 15 per cent of the person's weight, and after a spot of weighing up his and other students bags found they were generally way heavier than those figures suggested they should be.
With a laugh he said he was "bit scrawny" in the 60-odd kg range, but his backpack, when filled with everything he needed for the day, came in around 9.4kg.
Some of his mates' bags were way in excess of that.
So how to relieve the aches at any time or any place?
Build a 'Scratch Pack'.
Finalist in national Skills Bright Sparks competition, Matthew Shepherd of Napier with the Scratch Pack device he has designed and built to soothe sore backs. Photo / Warren Buckland
A power-driven lightweight pack with a multi-movement servo-motor-driven arm which, when given directions via apps on a phone, will scratch and soothe vertically and horizontally.
You could be sitting down doing homework or watching TV or doing the dishes or making a sandwich and the back will be scratched... and soothed.
"It took about two months from start to finish and yeah, there was a lot of tweaking along the way."
When his mates gave it a shot they were more than impressed, and the praise he got saw him put it forward for the Skills Bright Sparks Competition, the country's longest running national science, technology, engineering and mathematics competition for primary and secondary school students.
It hit the mark with the judging panel, made up of experts from Skills Group, Rocket Lab, ASB, The Resource Guys and Flexware and he was subsequently called to say he was one of the 28 finalists chosen.
He later learned that his cousin James Avenell, who lives in Alexandra, also made the finals, so there's a bit of lighthearted friendly rivalry on the plate.
This year's Skills Bright Sparks has partnered with Rocket Lab with the company recognising the event was key to encouraging the next generation of New Zealanders to consider careers in engineering, innovation and within that, space exploration.
Matthew is well on his way, earning a scholarship to Auckland University next year where he will study mechanical engineering.
The winners of this year's competition will be announced in Auckland on November 7.
