WEST ORANGE, NJ — West Orange High School students continue to excel in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics competitions.
Students taking the engineering and design solutions course competed in the Northern Regional STEAM Tank Competition on May 13. The highly successful program, launched at Workshop 2016, pits student teams in a contest modeled after the “Shark Tank” television show. Teams create innovative projects and and present their inventions before a judging panel of entrepreneurs, business leaders and inventors.
This year’s WOHS student invention was the no-snooze alarm. “S(no)oze” is an unique alarm clock system that is designed using foolproof and innovative E-textiles, along with a hackable alarm clock circuit that require a person to get out of bed to deactivate the alarm. The students designed and created a fabric pressure sensor that activates when pressure is applied.
Finalists will be presenting their inventions in Atlantic City in October. The teacher is Catherine Gardner and the students are Jax Apollon, Luke Brill, Nelson Bonifacio and Justin Bouyer.
On May 21, the TSA Robotics Team — WO-Town Robotics — participated in the “RoboCup Jr. On Stage Competition” at Horace Mann School in the Bronx and took second place out of 10 schools from New York and New Jersey. The team consisted of Max Dickman, Pierce Moul and Charles Aborisade.
The challenge was to build a robot that performed a two-minute skit or dance without leaving the “dance floor” — a 5-meter by 4-meter box. Students used Lego Mindstorm NXT and Labview Tetrix to program their autonomous dance routine. The robot was made from Tetrix parts and student 3D printed parts.
Some of the participants were from Orange, Horace Mann, Golda Och, Randolph, Cherry Hill, East Orange and others from the surrounding area.
“They really did an amazing job,” WOHS technology teacher Max Grossman said in a press release. “It was our first robotics competition so placing at all was really an incredible achievement.”
Last week students in Cincy Celi’s advanced architecture and engineering design class took a field trip to New York City to explore architectural styles and skyscraper design. They visited the One World Observatory to see the many different building designs New York City has to offer from high above and examined the design of the nearby Oculus building.
Students will be designing their own skyscraper design to add to the walkway into the Architecture and 3D Printing Studio at the high school.
About the Author
