Lucas Swartz Student Profile

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT

Lucas Swartz & THE SLOPEMASTER PROJECT

Imagine yourself

high up on a snowy hillside, the brisk air plays in concert amongst the deafeningly beautiful landscape.

The worries of the week fade away, and the fact that your kids fought in the car for three hours on the way to the lodge are soon to be forgotten. The moment before you push off, the symphony of your ski (or board) cutting gently through the snow is cathartic and exhilarating all in the same breath. But just as you’re beginning your descent into sub-zero elation, out of the corner of your eye, you see something rocketing toward you. You glance over, expecting to see what has to be some kind of rogue wildebeest on a crash course for destruction, but it isn’t...your Rossignols are safe. Instead, you see some type of gryphon-like hybrid that isn’t quite a ski, snowboard, or bike. The rider is sitting down, and has somehow managed to not crash into everything in their path.

It’s interesting. It’s weird. It’s a Slopemaster.

...and it was created by a 14-year old.

Lucas Swartz, a student

at Carmichaels High School in Carmichaels, PA, invented the ultimate mountain-riding machine, and coined it The Slopemaster.

His invention has gained quite a bit of attention, earning him the top prize at the Regional Invention Contest with Inventionland Institute. He recently made history as the youngest person to place in the Create! Pittsburgh festival (taking home the bronze) and his invention was also put on display at California University.

Now 15, Lucas reminisces to when he first discovered his passion for inventing. “Our school got a grant for a program called Inventionland Institute, a class where you’re supposed to invent something and make it better. My teacher, Mrs. Schultz, really kind of let us do whatever we wanted to do. She supported all the ideas we had. And I really like going big with my projects, I really enjoy that. I had the idea [for the invention] a couple of years and thought it would be cool to make it. I’ve been working on it ever since,” said Swartz.

Working hard at what he’s most passionate about isn’t anything new for Lucas. And according to his mother, Sherry Swartz, he’s always had an affinity for mechanics, “He started young, I mean his first word was tractor. Anything with a motor- he was into it.

Anything mechanical, anything with an engine and four wheels (or even two wheels) he was always interested in. He was in Cub Scouts and that’s when I noticed it really take off. They would do a pinewood derby car and he’d sit down with paper and draft it out.

Most kids were just getting a piece wood and slap some wheels and paint on it and he was trying to figure out how he could get his Dad to work on a large truck. It wasn’t your average everyday thing. I think he won best of show with his cars every year he was in Cub Scouts. And he was in first grade at the time,” She said.

Though his family insists that he is naturally gifted, Lucas admits he wouldn’t have been able to pursue his passion without their support. In fact, Lucas feels that a large part of his mechanical prowess came from his father, Brian Swartz. “I look up to my Dad a lot. My Dad welds and he works really hard. He always comes home and tries to do the best that he can for me. He rides motorcycles and he went to an ergonomics school- he’s an airplane mechanic.

He got me into motorcycles, I started riding when I was 2 ½ or 3 years old. He got me started young,” Swartz stated.

According to Sherry, Lucas is no stranger to going above and beyond on big projects, “Usually when he has a project, he always takes it two steps further, you know what I mean? He doesn’t just do what he has to do, he always tries to take projects and things where he’s working with his hands two steps further,” she said.

“He’s always been that way.”

Lucas has already accomplished quite a bit for his age and is now turning his focus toward plans for the future, “I would like to get [my invention] produced, if I could. I’d like to go a couple steps further and see what I can do.

There seems to be a lot of interest from a lot of people right now. I’d love to make a career out of it, I love working with motorcycles- I’d like to end up doing that, too,” Swartz said.

The event at Create! Pittsburgh presented Lucas with a lot of great networking opportunities, but according to Sherry this is also an area in which Lucas has always excelled, “He’s always been very good around people and adults, since the time he was small. 4-H really helped him, I believe, because you have to do projects and present things. So teamwork was something I think he was used to,” she said.

Over the course of working on his Slopemaster, Sherry says she’s noticed Lucas grow a lot, but in one area more than others, “I’d say he grew a little more confident with things. You know, every teenager could use that. It’s just going to have him dream bigger, and not put any limitsnot that he did before. It’s great to see this many adults being interested in a 15-year-old kid from Green County. It’s a great feeling, he’s a great kid- and not just because he’s mine,” she mentioned.

To fellow aspiring inventors, Lucas has some simple advice. “I’d tell them to go big, if they want it,” he said. And when asked what advice she’d give to the parents of young inventors, Sherry felt similarly, “I would echo what [Lucas] said as far as dream big. You know, he’d come home with these ideas and tell my husband about them. And we’d just look at him like, ‘You want to do this in what amount of time?’ You know, we never told him no. I’m sure in the back of my mind there was some doubt, but my husband dreams big also. I think if parents just listen, you just never know where it’ll lead. It’s funny to think that a school project could get to this point. Yeah, I’d just say listen to them and do everything you can to not limit them in any way,” she said.

Brian comically echoed Sherry’s advice, saying, “Let them drive you crazy. We’re fortunate with the farm that [Lucas] helps me work with a lot of stuff and his mind always wanted to know how it worked- why it did this, why it did that. So I guess, just support them the best you can. If they got a little dream, let them go with it and just try to help the best you can,” he said.

At 15, Lucas is just beginning to tap into his potential. He has a lot of opportunities, he has the drive to go far, and he has a family willing to do what it takes to help him get there. We can’t wait to see what he does next, we can only imagine where he might go.

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