Boston Common - Niche Media - A side of Boston that's anything but common.
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PHOTOGRAPHY BY IAN TRAVIS BARNARD F orget the idea that engineers are uptight nerds: Nate Ball—the beatbox- ing, pole-vaulting inventor and TV host—blows that stereotype to smithereens. It's not just the laid-back charm and the athlete's wiry build. It's the sense of fun that blazes through his every word and gesture. This year he added "children's book author" to his already impressive CV, and May sees the release of Radio Active, the third of six titles in his Alien in My Ball of Fire MIT ALUM NATE BALL IS ON A MISSION TO BRING BATMAN TECHNOLOGY TO THE MILITARY AND TO SHOW KIDS THAT ENGINEERING IS AWESOME. BY JENNIFER DEMERITT Pocket series, which continues his work as former host of the PBS show Design Squad to get kids as pumped about engineering as he is. It all started while he was studying engineering at MIT. In the early aughts, the military sponsored a com- petition inviting students to design devices that would help soldiers in the field. He and his teammates created the Atlas Powered Ascender—"the culmina- tion of a lifetime of admiring superheroes and a lifetime of loving to build things." It allows a person to reverse-rappel up or down a rope at speeds of several feet per second, Batman-style. So if a soldier is trapped on a cliff, a rescuer can zip down from a helicopter and zoom him back up to safety, without the need for a conventional rescue hoist. The invention won the prestigious Lemelson- MIT Student Prize and spurred the creation of Ball's first company, Atlas Devices, which today supports all four branches of the mili- tary. "We're always making it smaller and lighter," he says. "I think we'll never be satis- fied until it's actual Batman size." While Ball and his team were developing the Ascender, WGBH descended on MIT in search of ideas for a show that would get mid- dle-school kids excited about engineering. At first, Ball helped brainstorm ideas for the show ("It was a super fun summer job—we broke the lab window with a Frisbee-throwing prototype"). Then the produc- ers invited him to audition as host for the pilot. He ended up hosting the show Design Squad for three years. It was a perfect gig given Ball's background. The son of an elementary school music teacher mom and an IT administrator father, he and his sisters were encouraged to explore while growing up in Oregon. "I really admire the trust my parents had that we would probably hurt our- selves a little bit, but it was going to be fine. That enabled so much exploration." (He did, in fact, burn the kitchen with rocket fuel.) Following his curiosity also meant pursuing his love of music; in high school, he took to the streets as a beatbox performer. He's kept up with that hobby, and last year competed in the American Beatboxer Championship. As for the future, the biggest challenge for this 31-year-old, award-winning multitasker is what to turn down. But he says he will always prioritize (espe- cially now that he's a new father himself) inspiring kids to believe that anything—beatboxing, inventing, or otherwise—is possible. "I strive to build the opportunity for that click to happen." BC Engineer Nate Ball shows off his athletic ability and his new children's book. INSIGHT Kid stuff: "Growing up, I read all the time. Encyclopedia Brown, The Way Things Work, Incredible Cross- Sections—I'd get lost in those books." Aha moment: "I always enjoyed learning, but it really clicked at MIT. Once, in thermal fluids class, I was like, 'Oh, this is how paintball guns work!'" 46 BOSTONCOMMON-MAGAZINE.COM TALENT PATROL 046_BC_SP_TP_Ball_LateSpring14.indd 46 4/4/14 10:38 AM