By Lions Club of Wonthaggi
MAT was a self- admitted “misfit” at school.
Despite being a naturally gifted student, he found himself in detention most days for being disruptive or for breaking or “bending” the rules.
He didn’t like being at school at all, until at age 16, a new Japanese teacher saw his potential and recommended him for a Lions Youth Exchange to Japan.
Mat went on the 6 week Youth Exchange, staying with a Japanese Lions family and came back a “changed person”.
At the end of Year 11, he was given the opportunity to return to Japan as an Exchange Student for 12 months with the same host family, sponsored by one Mitsukaido Lions Club. This year in Japan taught Mat about discipline, kindness, generosity and unconditional love. He returned to Australia to complete Year 12 at Wonthaggi Secondary College.
The boy who had “hated school” was now Dux of the School and one of the top students of Japanese language in Australia.
After graduation, Mat became an engineer at Toyota Australia, where he was able to use both his engineering and Japanese skills.
During his 10 year career, he was involved in making processes more efficient, with another year spent on secondment in Japan. With the demise of the Australian car manufacturing industry, Mat was forced to find some other use for his talents and provide for his family.
Inspired by a scene of Luke Skywalker receiving a bionic arm after having it chopped off by Darth Vader in “The Empire Strikes Back”, he wondered if this technology would ever become a reality – especially for those who couldn’t currently access or afford them. He realised that the cost of prosthetic and bionic arms needed to come down significantly to be accessible to all. Especially with children out growing their devices so quickly, it often is not an option.
However, with 3D printers becoming more readily available, Mat believed that this technology could potentially be a way to get the manufacturing cost down to a point that they could be accessible to anyone who needed one. Putting his knowledge of robotics and lean manufacturing experience to use, Mat had found his new calling.
During those last few years at Toyota, Mat worked afterhours as a volunteer to make lots of 3D printed hands for kids that were born without fingers. After walking out of the gate for the last time in 2018, Mat decided to use his redundancy payout to continue working as a fulltime volunteer for another 2 years.
During this time, he set up a charitable organisation which he called “Free 3D Hands” to provide his devices to anyone around who needed one – free and even paid the postage.
With gathering of media publicity, he was nominated for a “Young Australian of the Year – Vic Local Hero” Award.
He was about to say, “thanks but no thanks” when his wife Yuka encouraged him to accept the invitation and go along – “because you never know who you might meet”. As it happened, he did meet another “likeminded” young man, Samuel Johnson, who took him under his wing to support him with starting his charitable organisation.
“Free 3D Hands” thrived and the home based operation moved to a rented factory in Cowes, and finally into a new design centre in Newhaven (thanks to a very generous, anonymous donor).
One 3D printer became many.
The “one man” operation began taking in volunteers and university students to expand their capacity.
Applications for devices came from all over Australia and around the world and the team became inundated with requests for help.
During the “COVID lockdowns”, Mat spent six months writing a 100 page assembly manual which he shared along with his Kinetic Hand design under an open – source license so that others could replicate what Free 3D Hands do.
There are now over 7000 others making Kinetic Hands all around the world, including a hospital in Thailand that makes Mat’s designs for a Leprosy colony.
Mat realised that it is only through global collaboration and sharing of knowledge that assistive technology can become accessible to all.
In recognition of this remarkable man and his ground breaking invention, the Lions Club of Wonthaggi, recently held at special Dinner at which Mat was invited to give a Presentation of his work.
Mat shared how significantly the Lions Club had shaped his life, and he thanked all members present for their ongoing dedication and commitment to serving the community. At the conclusion of the evening, Past International Council member, PDG Lion Steve Boyce presented Mat with a Melvin Jones Fellow Award (the highest award in Lions).
