Meet the engineer behind a brilliant animatronic “Ratatouille” Halloween costume
When most people come up with a Halloween costume, they either try to salvage an item from their closets or hope that they will make it before the Spirit Halloween’s shelves are empty. Christina Ernst, however, is busy in her laboratory. The 27-year old Chicagoan is known as @shebuildsrobots on TikTok. She’s a software engineer during the day and a fashion mad-scientist at night, creating what she calls “wearable technology” that combines creativity with technological ingenuity. Ernst says that she likes whimsical things, which look more magical and less technical. She was inspired this year to pay tribute to the 2007 Disney/Pixar movie Ratatouille. The story is about a culinary-minded rodent chef who takes control of an unfortunate human and guides him through the kitchen using his limbs and hair like a marionette. Ernst used her 3D printer and some tiny motors to create a fully-functional animatronic of her rodent chef. She also incorporated some helpful tips from fans. “I love to make fun, wearable technology projects. With Halloween approaching I thought that this was an excellent opportunity,” she says. “Everyone is familiar with Ratatouille even though the movie was released over a decade earlier and had no sequels…it has a cultural staying power.” A rat flying a human is a pretty cool idea. I thought it was a little fun project.
Ernst documented the project’s progress on her website and TikTok, where she has more than 82,000 followers. It’s not a good idea to read comments when you are a social media celebrity, but Ernst found that her community was more supportive than critical. She says, “This is probably the most positive response I’ve ever received to a video.” The comments made some excellent suggestions, such as programming the robot rat to mirror Ernst’s arm movements. Ernst is able to ignore the trolls, who claim that she is just “the front” of some unseen genius (usually male) who does all of the work. “For me, it’s the comments that say, “I’m a senior in high school and this convinced me to pursue engineering at school.” That’s so rewarding. “And that cancels everything else.” A self-described “math nerd” growing up who also loved to make her own clothing (“Which has a lot more math than people realize-it’s all algebra and geometry!”), she attended a Hackathon while in college and showed off the first wearable tech project she ever made: a Bluetooth-controlled, light up, color-changing dress. The response was instantaneous and unexpected. Ernst was “blown away” by the number of girls and women who came up to her and said, “I don’t have any technical background in coding but I would like to learn so that I can make a dress. Can you teach me ?” “And that moment was a lightbulb for me.” Ernst is also the “Maker in Resident” at the Chicago Public Library, a temporary role where she teaches classes on coding through the Maker Lab. She’s also creating a wearable technology dress that will be displayed in the windows of the library during the holiday season. In November, Ernst, Miranda Cosgrove and the STEM-themed CBS show Mission Unstoppable will feature her mentoring more engineering-curious women.
While she still has some “dream projects” on her mind, including a large annual tech look that would be based on the theme of the Met Gala for that year, Ernst will not forget to finish Remy by October 31. Especially since Patton Oswalt – the comedian and actor who voices Remy – has noticed her work and posted his response on X.
“That was so unexpected!” Ernst says, “I never thought that this silly little project would receive such attention.” I’m sure that people do Disney projects all the while, so to be noticed and impressed by him was an honor!
