Staff of the Week: Nico Gallo

If you’ve entered the PEA Design Lab, you’ve probably seen Design Lab Coordinator and VERTEX robotics team adviser Nico Gallo helping students create a game piece inspired by “Dungeons and Dragons,” or working on robotics while students paint a shoe with acrylic paint for their 3D Design art class.

Gallo has extensive experience in mechanical engineering and design, and helps students with projects ranging from protein modeling and 3D printing to building electric scooters. 

Gallo joined the Exeter community four years ago, and even before he came to the Academy he was invested in engineering and music. “I attended Manchester Central High School, a large and very diverse public high school, where I was pretty much completely absorbed by the band and FIRST Tech robotics team,” Gallo said. “I went to college for mechanical engineering, and wound up spending a lot of time in makerspaces building furniture, fixing mopeds, assisting visual artists, teaching, and playing music.”

According to students, Gallo is an integral part of Exeter’s engineering program and Design Lab space. “I think he really embodies Exeter education in that he wants you to be the one making discoveries and the one to be doing the engineering work,” Upper Vincent Xiao, a co-head and Principle Head of the First Tech Challenge Team in the Robotics club, said. “He wants you to be the one who is in charge and in control of your final outcome or what you end up creating…He tries to minimize the guidance as much as possible, so in the end, you are the one making the discoveries and you're the one who is allowing yourself to learn and grow and develop.”

Mimi Hari ’20 agreed. “He was always willing to help us solve our problems, but in a way so that he didn’t answer the question for us—he was always trying to guide us down the correct path. When working with him, you feel like he genuinely wants you to understand the solution,” Hari said. 

Gallo talked about the collaboration between Harkness and hands-on learning. “[Exonians] are good at having conversations and asking questions, but it seems like the other side of that is ‘what do you do with that?’” Gallo said. “[Hands-on learning] is maybe underexplored and I think that’s why a lot of students get value out of the design lab, that it gives you some kind of outlet from sitting in class all day, sitting with questions…I feel like having a way to change the space around you, making something or fixing something is really nice and it pairs well with some of the more theoretical aspects of education here.”

VERTEX Robotics Team member and senior Emmett Lockwood explained how Gallo uplifts his students in a true Exonian manner. “Mr. Gallo truly embodies Harkness, almost to a fault. While he of course keeps us in line with safety measures, he never squashes students' creativity,” Lockwood said. “I have watched him carefully listen as students walk him through the ideas of projects that are almost certainly doomed to be revised, he knows that for Exeter students failing is hard but necessary and that the true joy of making comes from creating out of desperation.”

Avery Clowes ‘20, former member of the robotics club, also admires Gallo’s work and teaching method. “The way he helps is effective on a number of different levels. He can help you from your initial vision or concept, be it 3D-printing or woodcutting or making it out of metal, all the way down to the most granular level of ‘what hardware should I use and how do these pieces fit together’… Being a student is so much more than speaking and writing, I think there are lot of students who are really interested in the hardware and technical side, and Mr. Gallo and his Design Lab is a great way to learn about that path.”

Although much of Gallo’s work includes registering the robotics team for competitions and entering award submissions, he is also an important mentor. “He usually lets us figure things out and only jumps in when he sees something that he thinks he could help with in a meaningful way. He is also moral support and guidance throughout the competition season,” Xiao said.  

Lower and member of the Robotics Club’s First Tech Team Isabella Vesely further explained Gallo’s help in the design lab and teaching style. “It was really nice that he would be there with me and explain all the ins and outs of all the machines… This school year, I was working on a small part of the robot, it was an easy fix but there were so many different ways you could approach the problem,” Vesely said. “We used a power tool, the angle grinder, it was interesting to learn and go through the safety measures. I think the best part about his help is that he doesn’t do it for you, so he kind of guides you and explains it.” 

Vesley continued, “One of the best parts of working with him is that it’s one of the best ways to learn that you just have to do it yourself, like actually doing it, whereas he'll help you figure out how to do it… It's kind of like that quote, ‘if you give a man a fish he'll not be hungry, like for one day, but actually teach him how to fish, and he will never be hungry,’”

Gallo has provided help to many student projects. “I produced [a scooter] at a speed and range that about matched market scooters around two and a half times its cost.” 

Xiao recalled the process. “In order to do that, there was a lot of engineering needed… Mr. Gallo has a background in mechanical engineering and was able to provide feedback, like when I was attempting to integrate the motor with the wheel and attach it to the scooter, he said ‘you could try doing this in order to get them together’ and then we would identify a problem,” Xiao said.

VERTEX team member and upper Celine Tan described Gallo further. “I'd say he's a very understanding person, and he is very dedicated to making sure that all of the students who are involved in activities know what they're doing and feel welcomed,” Tan said. “Mr. Gallo is a very empathetic person. He does a lot to put himself into our shoes, and he understands how much robotics can be sometimes. And he regularly expresses how he's willing to offer support because of that.”

Senior and member of the Robotics Team Andrew Woo described Gallo as, “very smart and ingenious, a bit eccentric at times.” 

“He had a whole vibraphone/glockenspiel in the lab, and was working on polishing all of the aluminum bars to a mirror finish, after sanding the scratches out of one of them,” Woo added. 

Outside the Design Lab, Gallo enjoys spending time indulging in musical aspirations and performing as a vibraphonist across the New Hampshire region in concert halls and in casual streetside busking. “I was playing at a lot of restaurants and bars and jazz venues or on the seacoast where I live.” 

“A couple years ago, we had a sharing of artistic talents at the school on campus,” Science Instructor Alison Hobbie said. “Not only was he playing the vibraphone, but he had a friend come by who was a tap dancer, it was more for percussion…That’s sort of one of the sparkles of his creativity, right? It comes from music. It comes from working with his hands. He’s using the creativity of the design process, overlaid upon his technical skills and use of tools… It’s a reminder that a lot of adults on campus have other depths. It’s fun to find out the other aspects of people’s lives.” 

However, the first waves of COVID-19 became a big impediment to Gallo’s musical life after many venues closed down. “When everything closed down, I immediately lost a lot of inspiration to play at all. There were probably like eight or nine weeks where I just couldn't touch [the vibraphone],” Gallo recalled. “I thought I wasn't going to play again ever… I had been directing my practice according to what performance was coming up. I could be prepared for the next gig or whatever it was. And all of a sudden there are no performances… It seemed like it was a perfect time to do practice, but it was really hard for me to define motivation.”

Gallo talked about how he has made a comeback after a while and feels more energy than ever to indulge in music. “I think taking a break is really, really helpful. I think it's hard to see that when you're younger, because you feel this urgency to, like, do everything as quickly as possible. It's something I've kind of had to learn. I used to think that if I wasn't amazing at X, Y or Z, by the time I was 21, then my life was gonna fall apart. But I turned 21. It didn't fall apart. I realized that more time.”

With music, Gallo finds creative ways to combine this passion with engineering. “I know last year in the Design Lab, he was turning his vibraphone into an electric instrument…He was sort of taking apart the entire vibraphone and fixing stuff up. I think he's trying a lot of interdisciplinary stuff, which is really cool because of just all the intersectionality between music and engineering,” Xiao said. 

Woo added on. “No matter what you want to create, he's always there for help. I believe every Exonian should experience the makerspace environment during their Exeter career, and Mr. Gallo facilitates that perfectly.”

Xiao recognized Gallo’s mentoring presence at the lab. “He's always happy to help train students in the use of the laser cutter or the angle grinder, or sort of these industrial manufacturing tools and methods,” he said.

“I know that the design lab is an important space in the lives of many students. Without him, I’m sure that the lab wouldn’t be running as smoothly as it is now. I know that many students are grateful for the work he does,” Hari said. 

Gallo explained what his goals were for the Design Lab and how he thinks it has helped students on campus. “I think that the Design Lab has given a unique depth to the kinds of projects students can work on here, while also providing a release from an academic environment that I've heard occasionally referred to as ‘demanding.’ Going forward, I want for more students to feel welcome and comfortable here, and for our space to grow to accommodate more kinds of projects,” Gallo said. 

Gallo reflected on his Exeter experience and circled back to the students. “You all give me so much inspiration and you've got such a unique energy, and there's a fearlessness that's kind of built into working with this age group. You haven't learned some of the things that can hold you back, which is really refreshing to observe,” he added. “I can observe by watching students work specifically on making things and learning how to make things and determine what things hold me back that I have, like, learned since I was that age. And it gives me a path to kind of unlearn them and free myself up… It's just really cool. I love working with the students.”