![]() His first videos showed him and his friends playing Parkour, a game where players race through a complex environment with just their hands, feet, and a series of gymnastic moves. Hobson began posting videos on YouTube shortly after it launched. Hobson had been a YouTube star since he was 16.įrom YouTube Parkour Fame to an Etsy Shop But he also had some side gigs that were keeping him up at night. Hobson was busy, the type of busy engineers get when trying to establish themselves in a career. My boss took me so I could see what people were doing with the technology.” “It made high-end movie projectors, and we used 3D printing to test prototypes and make production parts. “It had a great culture with a large 3D printing operation,” he said. Recommended for You: 5 Young Inventors Aim to Change the World On my third day at work, I was hopping on a private jet to visit a manufacturer in Cincinnati because our boss believed in face-to-face business.”Īfter a couple of years at Athena, Hobson returned home to Kitchener to work as a product developer at Christie Digital Systems. Photo: Hacksmith Entertainment“We worked in a Platinum LEED-Certified building, had a personal chef, and used geothermal energy to keep the parking lot from freezing in winter. The Captain America bracer features two large electromagnets that can swipe a moving metal shield out of the air. “The owner had a few industry veterans to serve as mentors but everyone else was a fresh graduate out of school,” Hobson recalled. “We planned to drive it around town, but the insurance company wouldn’t insure it.”Īfter graduating with a degree in mechanical engineering, Hobson took “the first job that would have me.” That was at Athena Systems, a small firm that made innovative injection molding machines. “It was a very big project compared to what we should have been working on, but we learned a lot,” he said. They pulled apart the forklift’s innards and used them to convert the car into an electric vehicle. ![]() As sophomores, they bought a 1993 Honda coupe and convinced a company to donate a forklift. There, he and Hillier found a way to push the envelope. At the time, it was one of the first colleges (as opposed to universities) to offer a four-year course in engineering. He found it at Conestoga College, which offered 3,000 hours of hands-on applied learning and practical projects. ![]() In high school, I learned that I liked to do hands-on work, so I went looking for a school that would offer me that.” “It’s a huge university and you sit in lecture halls with 500 other students. “I didn’t like the sound of the program,” he said. Yet, it was a ticket Hobson chose not to punch. Ordinarily, an accomplishment like that is a ticket to a top engineering school, like the nearby University of Waterloo, where Google, Apple, and other high-flying firms recruit students. Together, they built a remote controlled robot that won the national competition. As a junior in 2007, he and his best friend (and current business partner), Ian Hillier, entered the Skills Canada Robotics competition. “I really liked it and decided to go to school for engineering,” he said.Įven in high school, his creativity showed. He took an integrated technology class-similar to a shop class-as an elective and began working with metal. He decided he needed to go to high school to meet other teens and to get a better idea of what kind of job he might like. Since Hobson was home schooled, he had plenty of time to “mess around” with his father’s tools and build things. He grew up in Kitchener, Ontario, about 70 miles outside of Toronto. Other times, like his metal printed 20-kilowatt heat saber, they are highly functional.įrom Winning Robotics Competitions to an Undrivable Car Sometimes, they provide cosmetic packaging for his concoctions. These range from laser cutters to 3D printers. Like every inventor, Hobson has a garage packed with tools. The forearm extension also pops up to launch rockets. ![]() The Hacksmith version of Iron Man’s power glove.
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