Sixteen-year-old Jared Lepora from Bristol has turned heads and caught imaginations with his creative approach to hands-on robotics. Along with his father, Nathan Lepora, a robotics professor at the University of Bristol, for two years he partnered with his father. Now combined, they helped design and create an incredibly advanced robotic hand using nothing but Lego.
The dextrous robotic hand has four fingers, each with three joints, so it can bend and twist its fingers in any direction to perform a variety of movements. The device gets its dexterity from two motors, which use tendons to replicate the motion of a human hand. To highlight its functional capabilities, this innovative creation is able to successfully grab different objects like fruits, cups, etc.
Jared recently debuted his adaptation of this work at the Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) 2025 conference in Hangzhou, China. As the youngest speaker at the event, he presented his work and even co-authored an academic paper on the robotic hand with his father.
“My dad specializes in making advanced robot hands and I thought these principles were always really cool, so why not make it out of Lego?” Jared expressed during his presentation. His love for robotics and cutting edge thinking are taking him to explore this new unique medium.
Member Nathan Lepora helped Jared immensely throughout the building process. Thanks to Nathan’s help, Jared overcame new hurdles and honed his design to perfection. Nathan shared his thoughts on the project, stating, “Wouldn’t it be amazing if it could be a proper Lego set for other children? That would be exciting.” He hopes that one day this Lego hand can help other young inventors like himself.
Jared’s accomplishment is a testament to his technical abilities as well as the power of educational tools to inspire the next generation of innovators across STEM fields.… in my prickly Lego there hand His Lego hand celebrates the accomplishments of boys and girls like him. In doing so, he’s already laying the groundwork for futures innovations in robotics.
The artistic journey of this interdisciplinary collaborative project between father & son encourages exploration through mentorship and hands-on learning. Jared and Nathan are on a grand artistic adventure to reimagine the potential of robotics. They hope to encourage and excite more children like them to use creative problem-solving skills by combining play with technology in their projects.