Wanted to share this video of a teenager who made a model car out of wood. I found this on Reddit where he posted it to an engineering group and explained he was mildly autistic and could never have a career in engineering because of his lack of social skills and the fact he couldn’t afford to go to college. Needless to say he’s been getting lots of encouragement.
Anyway, he’s just built a speedometer and there are other videos where he adds an odometer and shows how to build individual elements of the car. He said in the Reddit thread his ambition is to build a life-sized car that someone can drive.
I saw the speedo vid yesterday and have been a casual fan for some time. It’s really impressive though I can’t help but think he needs access to some better equipment & materials to really shine. He clearly has the vision, drive and talent to make something very cool.
Oh… a model car. From the title I was imaging he’d built his own handmade woodie station wagon or something. Actually the reality is cooler than what I’d pictured.
Really cool. Though I had to rub my chin dubiously when he bent the wire with tweezers and they just happened to perfectly fit into the plastic holes near the tyres.
Definitely does not sound like an impediment to engineering. His citing the lack of funding sounds like the best, true reason. But even so, you can get a good start toward a four-year eng. degree by attending an inexpensive community college. (This situation fits my teenage son to a tee; I know he has many options if he wants to be an engineer.)
As a civil engineering student myself I’ve been impeded by both lack of funding and lack of social skills.
Despite working full-time to the tune of nearly $50k/yr it was all I could do to afford part-time tuition at the local community college. I ultimately had to take out loans. Financially, things got worse when I transferred to an in-state 4-year university to complete my upper-division coursework (which my community college did not offer). By this point, however, my academic performance convinced the powers that be that I deserved grants and scholarships. I still had to take out more loans.
On the social front, there’s certainly this trope of engineers being socially awkward, but my experience and the advice I’ve received from career development staff here at school is that being gregarious and networking to the extreme are the name of the game. I’m hearing the phrase “there are lots of jobs… if you know somebody” a lot and after submitting 30-odd applications I’ve received 3 interview invitations. You can guess how those went.
I’m really impressed by this kid’s work and I sympathize with him regarding the intimidating expense of college. I was intimidated when I returned to college even though I was in a better financial position than most people. I wish him the best of luck whatever path he chooses.
