Team Rock-It Just Needs Space (Samantha Armistead, 17; Judy Cheng, 17; Ryan Hill, 18; Emma Jaynes, 17; Evan Perry, 17; Durham, NC) Team Rock-It of Durham, North Carolina, has experienced great success at amateur rocketry, including making the Team America Rocketry Challenge (TARC) national finals in 2013 and 2014, finishing in the top 25 teams during their second year. Their success qualified them for NASA’s follow-on Student Launch Initiative, where their payload system garnered high praise from engineers at NASA. The team also won multiple awards at the prestigious NASA competition. The team is comprised of high-school seniors Samantha Armistead, 17, Judy Cheng, 17, Ryan Hill, 18, Emma Jaynes, 17, and Evan Perry, 17, all of whom plan to pursue higher education in the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields of computer science, astronomy, and neurobiology.
This Team Is (Intentionally Not) On Fire! (Savannah Cofer, 18Varun Vallabhaneni, 17; Gahanna, OH; and Valerie Chen, 18; Matthew Sun, 17; Centreville, VA) Team FireArmor is one of the five winners of the 2015 Conrad Spirit of Innovation Challenge, an honor bestowed upon a team of high-school inventors and entrepreneurs. The competition challenges high-school students to use science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) skills to develop commercially viable, technology-based products that address real-world challenges. FireArmor is an innovative protective apparel designed to protect firefighters or anyone who faces extreme temperatures. It was created by then Centreville, Virginia, and Gahanna, Ohio team members, Savannah Cofer, 18, Valerie Chen, 18, Matthew Sun, 17, and Varun Vallabhaneni, 17. Unlike any protective apparel on the market today, FireArmor is composed of an inorganic, endothermic fiber that absorbs heat from its environment and keeps the firefighter safe even at dangerously high temperatures. Current firefighter turnout gear rapidly degrades above 300 degrees Celsius and provides less than six seconds of protection in flash fire conditions. In contrast, FireArmor keeps the firefighter safe even above 1000 degrees Celsius and provides up to five minutes of protection in flash fire conditions. The team was inspired to create FireArmor two years ago, when 19 Arizona firefighters were surrounded and killed during a flash fire. After the Arizona tragedy, the team started thinking about whether an endothermic chemical reaction like that used in instant ice packs could be used to offer a dramatic improvement in firefighter apparel. Team FireArmor is currently working on both a patent and a trademark.
AMNO & CO Isn’t Going Underwater, But Their Robot Certainly Is(Alex Miller, 17; Clara Orndorff 19; Nicholas Orndorff, 16; Seattle, Washington) Alex Miller, 17, Clara Orndorff 19, and Nicholas Orndorff, 16, of Seattle, Washington, started in 2010 with a $130 kit of underwater robotics parts provided by the MATE Center’s Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) grant from the National Science Foundation. The students’ goal was to design and build an underwater robot to complete the mission tasks laid out by the MATE competition. The team, named for their initials, AMNO & CO, did just that. They entered the competition’s SCOUT (beginner level) class in 2010, and the following year, they challenged themselves to move up to the RANGER (intermediate level) class. In 2013 and 2014 they won the RANGER class at their regional event, advancing to the MATE international competition where they placed 13th (2013) and 6th (2014) overall. They advanced to the international competition again in 2015 where, five years after their passion for science and engineering was first ignited, their hard work and perseverance paid off—they won! In addition to 1st place, in 2015 AMNO & CO was presented with the RANGER class award for Design Elegance and the Health, Safety, and Environmental (HSE) Award sponsored by Oceaneering International. Alex, Clara, and Nicholas were also recognized for the mentorship they provide to other students just getting started—hoping to inspire the next team to move from SCOUT to RANGER to champions!
A Motivated 15-Year-Old Creates MotivateMe (Diana Veronin, 15; Hillsboro, NJ) When 15-year-old Diana Veronin’s grandfather had a stroke and had a hard time motivating himself to do his rehabilitation exercises, Diana, of Hillsboro, New Jersey, took it upon herself to create a device to help patients like her grandfather. Diana’s device, MotivateMe, is a compact, low-cost wristband that uses wearable technology to motivate stroke patients to do their rehabilitation exercises frequently and correctly. A therapist can program specific exercises for the patient to do while wearing the device. The device will then use the accelerometer to record movement data. When the patient wears the device, the machine-learning software used in the device will analyze movement patterns for the different exercises to detect when and how frequently a patient does an exercise correctly.
The Breathtaking Device That Cuts Costs but Not Quality (Maya Varma, 17; San Jose, CA) Maya Varma, a 17-year-old from San Jose, California, was astounded at the price of diagnostic spirometers—the machines used to analyze lung health by having patients blow into them. The devices typically cost hundreds of dollars, so Maya Varma developed a 3D printed version, that costs a mere $35. Maya used her knowledge of 3D printing, electrical engineering, and computer science, along with data of lung capacity and flow rate, to build the device, which can currently diagnose chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, emphysema, chronic bronchitis, and restrictive lung disease with remarkable accuracy. The Electronics Aquarium tubing connects the spirometer to a pressure sensor that converts the pressure change to voltage. An Arduino microcontroller sends the voltage data to an Android app. The Spirometer Varma’s system uses a 3D-printed Lilly pneumotachometer, a spirometer that calculates flow by measuring the pressure change across a mesh when you blow into it. Maya’s (literally) breathtaking invention earned her a slot as a 2016 Intel STS finalist, where her spirometer was selected as one of the top 40 projects in the nation.
These Kids are In Charge: California Students Build Solar-Powered Charging Station for Electric Vehicles: When these Union City, California students, represented by Shaneel Narayan, 18, and Jahsene Tongco, 18, realized that even for electric cars, the energy generated to charge them often comes from fossil fuels, they set a goal to change that reality. A team of young engineers from James Logan High School took on the challenge of designing and building a solar charging station for an electric vehicle — enabling a car to be fully powered by renewable and sustainable energy sources. Their result earned them a spot as finalists at the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow national competition. They built a full-scale charging station requiring engineering and wiring precision, incorporating a solar array, batteries, solar charge controller, inverter, and an Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE). Possibly their biggest accomplishment, they convinced a teacher to allow them to test the charging station on his car … and it worked!
In addition to those exhibiting, honored students invited to the 2016 White House Science Fair include:
- Aisha Abdulkarimu, 17, Silver Spring, MD, The White House Leadership and Mentoring Initiative
- Ariel Antoine, 18, Bowie, MD, The Posse Foundation
- Cedrick Argueta, 17, Los Angeles, CA, AP Calculus Perfect Score
- Devin Barkey, 18, Boca Raton, FL, AP Calculus Perfect Score
- Brandon Benn, 15, Powder Springs, GA, MATHCOUNTS Math Video Challenge
- Bezawit Bogale, 17, Arlington, VA, The White House Leadership and Mentoring Initiative
- Sydney Bolomey, 15, Solon, OH, Science Olympiad
- Marshae’ Cappaninee, 18, Temple Hills, MD, The White House Leadership and Mentoring Initiative
- Anton Cao, 16, San Jose, California, AP Calculus Perfect Score
- Matthew Cheung, 18, Davis, CA, AP Calculus Perfect Score
- Avery Clowes, 14, Bolton, MA, Broadcom MASTERS
- Ashton Cofer, 13, Gahanna, OH, The DuPont Challenge Science Writing Competition
- Oscar Tejada Cruz, 17, Silver Spring, MD, The White House Leadership and Mentoring Initiative
- Prateek Dullur, 15, Naperville, IL, eCYBERMISSION
- Kavi Gupta, 18, San Marino, CA, AP Calculus Perfect Score
- Kayla Hamilton, 13, Columbus, GA, Girls, Inc.
- Olivia Hamilton, 13, Columbus, GA, Girls, Inc.
- Timothy Im, 17, Fort Worth, TX, Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Young Scholars
- Ojas Jagtap, 11, Clarksburg, Maryland, Verizon Innovative App Challenge
- Stephen Jasina, 17, Saline, MI, AP Calculus Perfect Score
- Shannon Joins, 16, South Charleston, WV, Zero Robotics High School Tournament
- Akshay Kadhiresan, 17, Arlington, MA, AP Calculus Perfect Score
- Ryan Kinzie, 18, Jefferson, MD, Real World Design Challenge (RWDC)
- John Kusner, 17, Ridley Park, PA, AP Calculus Perfect Score
- Malhar Kute, 18, Dunwoody, Georgia, AP Calculus Perfect Score
- Landon Labuskes, 15, Aldie, VA, AP Calculus Perfect Score
- Daniel Liu, 10, Ottawa Hills, OH, National You Be The Chemist Challenge
- Kevin Liu, 13, Carmel, IN, MATHCOUNTS National Competition
- Adarsh Mattu, 15, Naperville, IL, eCYBERMISSION
- Adriana Maya, 10, Vienna, VA, White House Share Your Science Fair Story Public Call
- Kevin Melgar, 17, Hyattsville, MD, The White House Leadership and Mentoring Initiative
- Ramon Pazmino, 18, Silver Spring, MD, The White House Leadership and Mentoring Initiative
- Lydia Plante, 10, Vienna, VA, White House Share Your Science Fair Story Public Call
- Shawl Pryor II, 15, Marietta, GA, MATHCOUNTS Math Video Challenge
- Emily Rabinovich, 15, Solon, OH, Science Olympiad
- Aditya Ramachandran, 14, Lisle, IL, eCYBERMISSION
- Austin Ray, 17, Washington, D.C., The Posse Foundation
- Aleonna Scott, 17, Bowie, MD, White House Share Your Science Fair Story Public Call
- Brittainy Sechler, 17, Frederick, MD, Real World Design Challenge (RWDC)
- Matthew Smith, 16, Tuttle, OK, FIRST Robotics
- Richard Song, 16, Chalfont, PA, AP Calculus Perfect Score
- Toby Wells-Spackman, 11, Middlebury, VT, InfyMaker Awards
- Eashana Subramanian, 11, Clarksburg, MD, Verizon Innovative App Challenge
- Henry Swan, 12, Ripton, VT, InfyMaker Awards
- Andy Xu, 13, Simpsonville, SC, MATHCOUNTS National Competition
- Christopher Xue, 16, Plainsboro, NJ, AP Calculus Perfect Score
- Peter Warrick Jr., 14, Smyrna, GA, MATHCOUNTS Math Video Challenge
- Quivion Wynn, 14, Columbus, OH, MATHCOUNTS Math Video Challenge
- Rahul Yesantharao, 16, Houston, TX, AP Calculus Perfect Score
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