Cape robotics grads talk capstone projects and next steps

From a 3D-printed viking statue to an underwater robot, Cape High’s 2025 robotics graduates showed off their creativity, hard work and collaboration through their senior capstone projects.

Clay Wakefield and Aidan Hudson, for example, worked together to build a robot for the VEX V5 robotics competition. They were tasked with designing a robot that could function autonomously underwater, and explore and photograph a manmade mock shipwreck.

Hudson and others also helped Mason Fyock and Ethan Curry, who created a 3D-printed Lego viking statue for display in the school’s front office. 

“I decided a fun and unique way to make the statue would be to use Lego bricks, but just buying Lego bricks is lame,” said Fyock. “So we 3D-printed our own Lego bricks, which took a lot longer than we were hoping for, and turned all the 3D printers into a production line to mass produce Lego bricks by the thousands.”

First, they made a 3D scan of the wooden viking that’s currently on display in the school’s library, which was built many years ago by students in the carpentry department. Then, they imported the scan into various software, filled in any holes and added coloring.

They enlisted the help of students from several other pathways, including the art department, carpentry department and audio-visual department. 

For the building process, they used a total of seven 3D printers, including one that can print with eight different colors at once. According to Fyock, it took nearly 12 hours to print one batch of 150 bricks.

The finished product was a 2.5-foot-tall multicolored Lego viking statue made of about 7,500 bricks. For interior supports, the students ordered off-brand, injection-molded bricks from Amazon, which provided more stability for the structure.

The students also made mini 3D-printed viking figurines, which they said they planned to give to school administrators.

“One of the things I love about robotics is that you can spend five or 10 hours just working, and time just goes flying,” student Edgardo Sabillon said.

The projects all involved a lot of collaboration, and many of the students helped with multiple projects.

“I think that’s a strength of the pathway, that it gets a bunch of people involved in a bunch of different stuff,” said Kieran Morrissey, who completed an AI development certification course as part of his project.

Many of the now-graduates plan to pursue careers in engineering.

Sophia Herrera, for example, who will be attending Virginia Tech, and Wakefield, who will be attending the Florida Institute of Technology, both plan to study aerospace engineering.

Herrera, who did an internship with Pilottown Engineering, said she hopes to see more girls join the Cape robotics pathway in the future.

Ethan Curry and Hudson will both be attending the University of Delaware, where they plan to major in computer engineering and chemical engineering, respectively. Sabillon plans to study engineering at Delaware Tech.

Morrissey, on the other hand, who’ll be attending the University of Notre Dame, plans to study pre-law. While he doesn’t plan to pursue engineering, he said the robotics pathway has taught him lots of useful and transferable skills, like time management, organization and communication.

“We're all involved in wildly different things, and this [pathway] brings everyone together and just gives you an additional outlet to grow your skills,” he said.