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St. Paul Central High student among 4 chosen to attend New York technology convention [Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.]
[September 15, 2014]

St. Paul Central High student among 4 chosen to attend New York technology convention [Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.]


(Saint Paul Pioneer Press (MN) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Sept. 15--Abda Nebi held up his LG G2 smartphone and said: "Most people wouldn't take this apart. They're scared they're going to break it.

"I'm not afraid to take apart things," he said.

Nebi's willingness to deconstruct electronic gadgets, to fix them or just to see how they work is a big reason he's going to New York City on Friday.

The 19-year-old Central High School senior from St. Paul is one of four Twin Cities students going on the trip, sponsored by Leonardo's Basement, a local art, technology and science workshop for kids who like to build things.

Thanks to a grant from IT company Cognizant, the Leonardo's Basement students will attend the World Maker Faire in New York, a technology, science and craft convention sponsored by the DIY magazine Make.

Nebi and the other students, Naomi Klaila of Minneapolis Southwest High School, Sophia McAneney of Ramsey Middle School in Minneapolis and Guthrie Nielsen of Minneapolis South High, will lead a workshop to teach other kids how to make an electromechanical gadget.



Nebi's interest and expertise is electronics, which he said has fascinated him since he was a child in Ethiopia.

"I used to take apart electronic stuff. Sometimes, I would break them," he said. But with practice, he learned how to put devices back together.


"When I was like 12, I started fixing radios," he said. "And some phones. I used to do that." Nebi moved to the United States in October 2011 with his sister and brother.

He was attending LEAP High School, a school for new immigrants in St.

Paul, when Leonardo's Basement held a workshop inviting students to build models of either a dream house or their house in their native country.

Nebi built a model of an Ethiopian hotel.

"He was just so excited," said Steve Jevning, executive director of Leonardo's Basement.

"He was more interested in putting lights in this hotel than building the hotel," Jevning said.

Soon, Nebi and his older brother, Mubarek, became fixtures at Leonardo's Basement workshops in St. Paul and Minneapolis. Both ended up working part time for the program during the summers.

Leonardo's Basement "is kind of my start in being here in America," Nebi said.

Mubarek saved his earnings for college, according to Jevning, but "Abda buys electronic kits." "He made a brake light for his bike, and he used aluminum foil to make the contact for the electricity," Jevning said. "It was so ingenious and so clever." He said Nebi recently bought a screen and wiring for a cellphone.

"I still don't know what he's going to do with it," Jevning said.

"He's really quick about learning new things. He's really fast with computer stuff," Jevning added.

Now, Nebi is tinkering with remote- controlled cars operated by cellphone and electronic sensor-controlled lights.

He thought it would be a good idea to invent an electronic translation device until he found that there's an app for that already.

Jevning has become a mentor for Nebi.

"I want to see him get to college," Jevning said.

Nebi's older brother is a freshman at the University of Minnesota. Nebi said he would like to go to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but "that's really a reach school." Wherever he ends up, Nebi said, he would like to study electrical engineering and computer science.

"I've got a feeling to be an inventor of something that the nation or the world could use, and people would say, 'Abda created this,' " he said.

Richard Chin can be reached at 651-228-5560. Follow him at twitter.com/RRChin.

___ (c)2014 the Pioneer Press (St. Paul, Minn.) Visit the Pioneer Press (St. Paul, Minn.) at www.twincities.com Distributed by MCT Information Services

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