LOUISVILLE, Ky. — What started as a concept for duPont Manual High School senior Jilly Choi has turned into a humanoid robot.

Choi’s goal is to make a low-cost humanoid robot to advance accessible research.

“If you think about elderly care, if you think about space exploration, those are all things that can be benefited from humanoid robotics,” said Choi.

His robot is called Talos. It can move independently in seven different directions.

“It’s actually able to mimic both two degrees of freedom of each finger. So it has this motion and then this curling motion. You can see three degrees of freedom here. There’s one going forward, one to the side and one doing rotation,” said Choi.

Choi was named a top 300 scholar in this year’s Regeneron Science Talent Search for his design of a low-cost, low inertia back drivable upper-body manipulator.

Choi’s teacher Keri Polevchak said he got into robotics early his freshman year and is an example of what exposure to STEM and research can do for a student.

“He knew someone that had hand issues and started looking at prosthetics and how those worked and realized there wasn’t any investments in it and started developing from that to where it started to lead into more AI and using a torso and a lot more development in the body,” said Polevchak.

“I think there’s something fascinating about creating artificial life. And I think humanoid artificial life is the most intriguing and amazing problem to tackle. I’m hoping to share these files online so that any researcher in any lab can have access and develop human robotics,” said Choi.

Choi is working on creating an entire robotic body and plans to go to college where he can continue his passion for robotics. He hopes to continue inspiring others through his passion.