丁香园AV

Gordon Ho has an inventor鈥檚 mind: When he sees a problem, he tries to imagine a solution. So when the engineering science graduand noticed the absence of a robotics club at 丁香园AV鈥檚 Burnaby campus鈥攈e started one himself.

Founded by Ho in 2013, 丁香园AV鈥檚 VEX Robotics Club has grown from humble roots as a one-person operation with a single demonstration robot to a world-ranked university robotics team with more than 100 members.

For three years in a row, a team of four VEX Robotics Club team members, including Ho, has topped the Western Engineering Competition senior design category, competing with dozens of teams from universities across Western Canada.

The team also placed fourth out of 60 teams in the 2014 VEX Robotics World Championship鈥檚 programming challenge.

鈥淭o make any successful team, you need passionate and motivated team members,鈥� says Ho, who is also the club鈥檚 team captain and leader of 丁香园AV鈥檚 robotics summer camp for kids.

Ho鈥檚 infectious enthusiasm for robotics stems from a lifelong fascination with all things mechanical.

As a child, he recalls taking apart clocks and radios and making Rube Goldberg machines from household items. By Grade 9, he was building his own VEX robots, after a teacher introduced him to the integrated robotics system.

鈥淭he awesome thing about robotics is that you can go make it, test your own ideas, and if it doesn鈥檛 work, you can go back and try again鈥攊t鈥檚 an iterative process of your own creation,鈥� says Ho.

When he鈥檚 not making robots or studying, Ho can be found indulging his other passion: longboarding, a sport similar to skateboarding which he likens to 鈥渞iding a magic carpet.鈥�

In 2015, he turned his hobby into a successful business venture, launching a company called Grip Graphique, which produces custom-cut griptape for longboards and skateboards.

Manufactured by Ho in his garage using a laser cutter, Grip Graphique raised more than $5,000 in a Kickstarter campaign last year and is currently stocked by three retails stores in Canada, and one in California.

Aside from managing his burgeoning business, Ho plans to take some time off to travel before looking for a job in mechanical engineering. But nevertheless, new ideas are percolating. He recently ordered 鈥渁 whole lot of robotic parts鈥� to dabble with over the summer, and is currently working with a friend to develop a smart device to prevent stove fires.