11-Year-Old Inventor: Essex County Boy Builds Working Vending Machine Out Of Legos

NORTH CALDWELL, NJ — A North Caldwell sixth grader with an affinity for both Legos and engineering has taken his interests to the next step by building a working vending machine for his classmates to use.

Nicholas Gencarelli, 11, recently brought in his Lego vending machine to his sixth grade class at Gould Elementary School. It wasn't part of an assignment, said aide Elaine Sinisi, so it was a nice surprise for the other students.

"The vending machine is programmed to dispense candy only after a quarter is inserted into the slot," Sinisi explained. "Nicholas designed the machine to reject any other coins other than quarters. If a dime or nickel is inserted for instance, it is immediately rejected."

She reported that he uses a Legos app that's on his phone to help with the design.

Nicholas' mom, Sandy Gencarelli, said her son has been passionate about building for a while.

"Since early childhood, Nicholas was always found building, creating something new," she said. "His two passions, building and coding, became one when he took Lego WeDo courses. It was then that he was introduced to the program Scratch. Since then he has taken Java Script and continue to show interest in coding."

She added, "He loves sharing his ideas, what he learns through the process and is continuously challenging himself and the project at hand."

Gencarelli said that it helps to have people around Nicholas who encourage his unique abilities.

"Nicholas has always thought outside the box, challenged coloring inside the lines," she said. "This, along with all the wonderful individuals who have met Nicholas where he is, rather than conforming him to be something he is not, is what I attribute has led to his developing ingenuity
mindset."

"Nicholas is a very hard worker and spends most of his free time investigating and studying different types of technological ideas," Sinisi said. "We are all extremely proud of Nicholas and feel very grateful that he is part of our sixth grade. We learn so much from being around him. He’s always working on something new and his perseverance paid off."

She added, "Nicholas has a very bright future ahead of him and we will always be there to cheer him on!"

Did you know? You can get a free daily newsletter each morning at 6 a.m. with local news in the Caldwells or your town, or get breaking news alerts:

Sign up with your zip code here and you'll get an email asking for your preferences.

Get a free morning newsletter with news in any New Jersey town: https://patch.com/subscribe