When two-year-old Cillian Jackson of Minnesota needed a powered mobility device, his family faced a challenge they never expected. Commercial pediatric power wheelchairs can cost as much as $20,000, a price far beyond what many families can afford. To make matters worse, their insurance company denied coverage, leaving Cillian without access to equipment essential for his early development. Because of a rare genetic condition that affects his mobility, the toddler could not walk, and those early years are crucial for exploring the world, building confidence, and learning to connect with others.

Unsure of what to do next, Cillian’s parents decided to try something unconventional. They reached out to Farmington High School, hoping someone in the robotics department might be able to help. What happened next became a powerful example of community innovation at its best.

The school’s robotics team, known as Rogue Robotics, immediately embraced the project. Rather than seeing it as a simple engineering challenge, the students viewed it as an opportunity to change someone’s life. Drawing inspiration from the University of Delaware’s GoBabyGo program, which specializes in adapting ride-on toy cars into mobility devices for children with disabilities, the team began planning a custom design built specifically around Cillian’s needs.
(Sources: ABC News, NPR, CNN, Star Tribune)

Starting with an off-the-shelf Power Wheels ride-on car, the students stripped the toy down and rebuilt it from the ground up. They rewired the internal electronics, created a safer and more supportive seat, added stability features, and redesigned the controls to make them accessible for Cillian’s abilities. Using their 3D printer, they constructed a custom joystick that allowed him to steer and drive independently—something a standard toy car could never offer.

The entire transformation cost only a few hundred dollars, a tiny fraction of the price of a medical-grade mobility device. But for Cillian and his family, the result was priceless.

The first moment he sat inside the customized vehicle, everything changed. For the first time, Cillian could move freely, exploring the world with a sense of independence that he had never experienced. He could follow family members, approach toys on his own, interact with other children, and chase after the family dogs with joy and determination. His parents described it as watching a door open—one that had been closed simply because the proper equipment wasn’t accessible to them.

His mother later shared that the experience didn’t just improve mobility; it improved his confidence, his engagement with the world, and his ability to participate in everyday childhood experiences.
(Sources: CNN, Washington Post)

The story didn’t end with Cillian. Motivated by the impact they had made, the students of Rogue Robotics continued their efforts by building additional modified mobility cars for other children in their community, ensuring more families could benefit from technology adapted with compassion.

In a world where innovation often focuses on profit, competition, or commercial success, these students chose a different path. They used their skills not just to build machines, but to build opportunities—proving that sometimes the most meaningful engineering doesn’t take place in major corporations or cutting-edge laboratories, but in a high school workshop where young people decide to make a difference.

What began as a single request grew into a powerful reminder of what happens when creativity, education, and empathy intersect. The robotics team didn’t just deliver a mobility device; they delivered freedom, possibility, and a new beginning for a little boy who simply needed a chance to move.