Over the next month, we’re celebrating technology and innovation in a new series called Bright Sparks. As part of the series, we’re bringing back some of our favourite articles about the people and ideas that are changing the world with technology.

Easton LaChappelle’s brainwave came when he was bored in class.

The teenager realised he wanted to do something extraordinary with his life. The question was, what?

The answer came from an unexpected direction. LaChappelle tinkered at home, building a robotic arm out of fishing wire, Lego and a 3D printer. Later, he met a young girl who was transfixed with his home-made prostheses – it turned out she had been fitted with a prosthetic limb, one so expensive “it was almost a burden for the family’.