submitted by Jeanne Casatelli, Communications Specialist, Questar III
On December 7 Berlin Middle/High School students introduced an invention that could help the deaf and hearing impaired participate in sports. Out of more than 300 applicants, Berlin Middle/ High School was one of only 14 schools in the nation awarded an InvenTeam grant from the Lemelson-MIT Program this year.
“Inspired by the InvenTeam’s slogan ‘making life better one invention at a time’ their adaptive sports device (ASD) will allow hearing impaired and deaf persons to ski, snowboard, rollerblade, jog and bicycle by alerting them to approaching traffic so they can avoid collisions,” said Dawn Wetmore, the InvenTeam’s facilitator and teacher.
Sophomore Andrew Zlotnick, one of the software developers for the team of nine students, said, “We’re proud of our invention because it’s going to help people. It could save someone’s life.”
“The device, which is clipped to the backs of its users, has ultrasonic sensors connected to their arms which will vibrate intensely as traffic approaches, allowing them to steer clear,” explained Llewellyn Palmer, a senior and one of the team’s mechanical technicians and field testers.
“When we heard we were selected,” said Chiara Dreher, a sophomore working on the software, “we felt pretty accomplished since we’re a small school out of so many. We picked this idea for the grant initially because there’s snow all around us and we’re near Jiminy Peak and lots of people here ski. Also my bus driver’s son is deaf so I thought it would be good for him and others like him who want to ski, too. Then we realized it could also be used for other sports.”
The team said their prototype must be finished by January 2011 and will be presented next June in Cambridge, MA, at the Eureka Fair which celebrates the invention process. At that time MIT will choose from among all the students’ inventions those to support for further research and production. Kelsey O’Dell, a sophomore covering research and documentation for the team, said, “Right now our school is not really known. If we get this, we will be very proud not only because we can help people but people will think more of us. It’s a big deal.”
Wetmore agreed, noting, “Such ideas are usually the product of high tech companies.”
The InvenTeam students range in age from 11 to 18. Once they heard the news in October, they started working right away to make their idea a reality. The initial CAD design was developed by sophomore Connor Brown and Ioann Popov, a sixth -grader. Eighth-grader Tim Shupe is designing the electronic schematic of the device using PSpice® software. Emma Woolley, a seventh-grader, shares with O’Dell the responsibility for maintaining the team’s website and keeping track of finances and documentation in the engineer’s book.
Palmer and Toby Goodermote, also a senior, soldered the circuit chips onto the microcontroller and continue to test and modify the device. Now the team’s software engineers are “developing the software to tell the device what to do,” explained Dreher.
Zlotnick said, “We have some ultrasonic sensor problems, but we’re getting past them and expect a new part in two weeks that will help.” He added, “The sensor and the C language we’re using don’t like each other very much, but we can make them overcome.”
“The students will soon test their prototype for winter sports, aided by lift tickets donated by Jiminy Peak,” said Wetmore.
