Marc-Charles Morquette loves exploring the inner workings of mechanical objects. Born and raised in Haiti until the age of 13, he began disassembling objects and trying to put them back together again at an early age. “I was always trying to fix appliances, engines, and gadgets that I would find around the house,” he says. “My family thought I was crazy because every toy they would buy me, I would take apart to see how it worked. Understanding how things works allows me to make sense of my world. … I constantly challenge why things are the way they are.”
He remembers watching his father, an engineer, working on car engines and other projects. “One day, he asked me to help him,” Marc-Charles recalls. “Since that very moment, I knew what it felt like to be a man! I knew I was going to be an engineer, just like my dad.”
He’s built everything from a lawnmower engine to an R/C airplane to a robot arm. At some point he wants to go back to Haiti to help his father build a bigger chicken-egg incubator for the small chicken farm he operates. Marc-Charles is also planning to build a go-kart and a four-motor drone helicopter.
A longtime fan of MAKE’s YouTube channel, he first came across MAKE magazine while in high school, and it inspired him to build the Secret Knock Gumball Machine project. “I gathered a bunch of garbage components, then made it happen,” he says.
Earning a solid B+ average in high school, Marc-Charles had hoped to get a scholar-ship to attend college — he’s interested in mechatronics or robotic engineering. Although he got accepted to good schools, he didn’t receive any scholarships, so he couldn’t afford them. Undeterred, he is now studying engineering at a community
college in Massachusetts, on a student loan, and juggling a 30-hour-a-week job.
As for the future? “One thing I know for a fact: I want to be my own boss one day,” he says. “Meaning that I want to create or invent something that I become well known for. Just like Mr. Dale Dougherty, Mr. Bill Gates, or Mr. Steve Jobs.”
Fun Facts
Age: 19
Location: Lowell, Mass.
Hero: My mother, for giving me the best education, and my father, for inspiring
me with his engineering work since I was
8 years old
Favorite Accomplishment: I earned over 40 academic, leadership, and sportsmanship awards during my high school career.
Favorite Tool: lately it’s the Arduino Uno, because it helps me learn about programming, which is a big challenge for me.
Current Project: a modified backpack with speakers, an LCD screen display, and some EL wire around the side. I’ll use an Arduino Uno to make everything work.
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