Read The Foreword To THe Book

As you turn these pages, we invite you to do something difficult. Put aside your realistic adult mind. Rediscover the audacity to ask, “What if?”. When Filip Meuris, Jan Despiegelaere, and I first started moulding MyMachine, I was struck by something deeply familiar. It wasn’t just the idea of children dreaming up machines; it was the audacity of it. The belief that a child’s imagination, no matter how wild or unfiltered, deserves a place in the real world. And that child stays with us, inside us, no matter how many years we put on. When I was still in the global business of helping companies and organisations innovate, I witnessed firsthand that this is the kind of thinking that changes industries and reshapes how we live, work, and play. 

The book you hold in your hands is a testament to that spirit. It’s not just a collection of Dream Machines; it’s a manifesto for the power of pure, raw imagination and ideas. Every page is a reminder that when a child looks at the world, it sees possibilities where adults see limitations. A scribble on paper becomes a blueprint. An idea becomes a prototype. And suddenly, the impossible doesn’t seem so impossible anymore.  At its core, MyMachine addresses a fundamental crisis in modern upbringing: the systematic unlearning of wonder. We tell our children to be realistic. We tell our students to be practical. In doing so, we inadvertently starve the very engine that drives human progress. MyMachine does the opposite. It takes the unbridled, surrealist, often hilarious dreams of a primary school child and treats them with the gravity of a high-stakes engineering contract. When a child asks for a machine that “catches bad dreams” or a “machine that helps you apologise”, most adults smile and pat them on the head. MyMachine, however, hands that dream to a university student and says, “Make it work”. This creates a magnificent, circular alchemy. The child learns that their ideas have agency and can literally change the physical world. The university student learns that technical skill without empathy and imagination is just mechanics. And the vocational student reminds us all that the hands are the soul’s primary tools.

The social entrepreneurship we aspire to, with the help of philanthropists, should not just fix problems; it should unlock potential. MyMachine bridges the whimsical logic of childhood and the rigorous logic of cross-industry innovation. It proves that innovation is not a solitary act, but a collaborative symphony played by different generations, different skill sets, and different ways of seeing the world. And in doing so, we don’t just build Dream Machines, we build confidence, curiosity, and a generation of thinkers who believe their ideas matter. That is why the Dream Machines in this book are more than just ideas. They’re stories. It’s not just about engineering; it’s about empathy. It’s not just about building; it’s about understanding. You will see Dream Machines that are colourful, eccentric, and brilliantly engineered. But look closer. Beyond the gears and bright paint, you are looking at the future: a generation that doesn’t fear a blank sheet of paper, but welcomes it. You are looking at people who understand that in the face of our world’s greatest challenges, the solution will not be found in old blueprints, but in the ‘impossible’ ideas we were once told to outgrow. And that’s what MyMachine teaches, long before these students ever set foot in a boardroom or a lab.

So, to the dreamers, the builders, the educators, and the believers: This book is for you. From us, MyMachine, a quiet, but focused revolution. One that proves that the distance between a dream and reality is simply the courage to build it together.

With hope and curiosity,
on behalf of MyMachine,

Piet Grymonprez
Co-Founder