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GILBERT SUN NEWS | JANUARY 9, 2022
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Gilbert teen already an accomplished inventor GSN NEWS STAFF
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t 17, Mars Kapadia is already a well-seasoned inventor with innovations like a mind-control remote-control car and a pair of smart glasses that’s said to give Google a run for its money. The Gilbert Classical Academy senior is an Arizona Science and Engineering Fair award recipient, has been featured in Popular Mechanics magazine and has his own YouTube channel where he demonstrates his technological creations. “My dad is my greatest role model,” Mars said. “My dad taught me how to go about the engineering design process and showed me real-world examples of using failure as a way to innovate products. “He taught me my initial understanding of electronics, and although he refuses to take credit for it, almost all of my understanding of the current flow relates back to what my dad taught me about motors.” Mars said when he was a kid, dad Perry Kapadia showed him how to make a motor operate by using just a fork and a battery. His mom is Komal Kapadia. “’Til today I relate my knowledge of electrical engineering such as polarity, continuity, voltage and amps to that small experiment,” Mars said. “I’ve used this knowledge to build things that I deem to be initially out of my mental scope so
that with each project I build, I learn one lifelong engineering skill. “When I built my hydraulic generator, I learned how to use a multimeter. In the 8th grade, I built a prosthetic hand designed for use on those with a trans-radial amputation. It taught me how to use pulse width modulation signals with a microcontroller to control the direction of a servo motor to a single degree of movement. It was also my first major experience
Mars Kapadia, a Gilbert Classical Academy senior, has already accumulated a number of honors for his many inventions. (Special to GSN)
Mars Kapadia invented a car that uses brain-decoding technology to steer. (Special to GSN)
with programming an ATmega microcontroller with C++.” Mars said he carried his skills into building his TOLED or “transparent organic light emitting diode-based smart glasses.” The glasses reportedly use a screen, a battery, a Bluetooth module for communicating with a smartphone and an Arduino Nano, a small, complete and breadboard-friendly board. In 2021 ELEGOO, which sponsors Mars, announced the teenager’s completion of a mind-control car, which him took six months to build. According to the Chinese company, the project uses electroencephalogram or EEG, which maps the brain’s signals to the movement of a remote-controlled car. In 2018, carmaker Nissan unveiled its Brain-to-Vehicle, or B2V, which uses brain-decoding technology to predict a driver’s actions and detect discomfort. By catching signs that the driver’s brain is about to initiate a movement – such as turning the steering wheel or pushing the accelerator pedal – driver-assist technologies can begin the action more quickly and improve reaction times and enhance manual driving, according to a company news release. And, by detecting and evaluating driver discomfort, artificial intelligence
see MARS page 18
HD SOUTH features photographer’s stunning work BY SRIANTHI PERERA GSN Contributor
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errick James, a Mesa photographer and travel writer known for his work locally and internationally, is featured in a show presented by Art Intersection of Gilbert. “Arizona Odyssey: Forty Years of
Roaming for Beauty,” displaying 66 images, runs through March 5 in Gallery 4 at HD SOUTH, the Home of the Gilbert Historical Museum. James is the ultimate explorer. He has traveled the length and breadth of Arizona, looking for the rare and fleeting, the unusual and the iconic to photograph and introduce to the world.
The photographs on display were taken between 1977 and May 2021 and the presentation is as noteworthy as the content. The photographs were printed by Artisan Colour of Scottsdale on Fuji PhotoFlex paper, then face-mounted to optically clear plexiglass acrylic and affixed to a museum mount. They seem to float off the wall.
A few of the images were printed on brushed aluminum, rendering the highlights both reflective and tactile. James depicts iconic landscapes, ephemeral weather and celestial phenomena, billion-year-old rocks and medusa-like saguaros. There are cowboys
see KERRICK page 16
