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Kudos to a group of Londonderry students who are in the process of turning their entry in a design contest into a real-world lifesaving device.
The Inventioneers are a team of six students ages 10 to 16 and are the current FIRST LEGO League world champions, winning that title in Atlanta in April. The FIRST LEGO League is a youth engineering program started by Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway.
The Inventioneers are demonstrating that good ideas don't always come from the big-money, sophisticated research labs. Lots of hard work and elbow grease applied to a sound concept can still produce worthwhile results.
The Inventioneers' product, the SMARTwheel, was born as their entry for last year's FIRST LEGO competition, in which they tackled distracted driving as their project. "SMART" is an acronym for "Safe Motorist Alert for Restricting Texting." Its purpose is to encourage young drivers to keep their hands on steering wheel while driving.
The SMARTwheel consists of sensors placed around a steering wheel that can tell when a driver does not have both hands on the wheel. Taking a hand off the wheel for more than three seconds causes a buzzer to sound and a red light to flash. The wheel is also able to store data on the incident for later review or send a report to a parent.
The SMARTwheel design is earning rave reviews.
A prototype of the device was tested at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, whose engineers were impressed.
"They tried it out in a car called Miss Daisy with 20 research subjects," team member Paige Balcom, 16, said. "The scientists said it was the best solution to the problem (of texting) they've ever seen."
Other members of the Inventioneers include: TJ Evarts, 14, Emily Balcom, 14, Kate Balcom, 12, Jaiden Evarts, 12, and Bryeton Evarts, 10. The team has won the state FIRST LEGO League championship four times.
Now, the group is moving away from competition and has formed a nonprofit organization to further develop and promote the SMARTwheel. They are developing a second prototype that incorporates some new features and working with an intellectual property law firm in Nashua to obtain a patent. The law firm, Vern Maine and Associates, is providing assistance free of charge. The group is also getting engineering help from Clements Scientific in Brentwood.
The Inventioneers have also received a $1,000 grant from the Allstate Foundation/National Organizations for Youth Safety to continue their work. The group is talking with insurance companies to see if they will offer lower premiums to drivers who use the SMARTwheel. They are also trying to get the wheel into driver's education programs.
The group is looking for people who will help them reach their goals of partnering with automobile manufacturers, driving schools and insurance companies. They also would like help with grant writing and business practices. Contact them via e-mail at: theinventioneers@yahoo.com.
The Inventioneers and the adults who mentor them are doing good work, using science and technology to tackle a real-world problem — distracted driving — that costs thousands of lives. Well done to all involved.
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