This case study focuses on a student who contributed much more than expected to digital projects by creating two archival tools: a web application for an oral history archive and a low-cost robotic scanner for paper-based materials. In a practicum course at Johns Hopkins University, Tom Smith and his peers worked on recording and organizing oral histories. Smith also developed an audio player for the digital archive. This work brought him in contact with the <a href="http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fmagazine.jhu.edu%2F2011%2F11%2Funboxing-history%2F&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNGaXC5EYOd1Hj_5kz-kcv3TgB4_qA">Diaspora Pathways Archival Access Project</a> (DPAAP) and led Smith to invent another tool: the <a href="http://projectgado.org/">Gado scanner</a>. This powerful, durable robotic scanner digitizes sensitive archival materials and can be built using simple components for less than $500.