Published date: January 7, 2024 8:00:58 PM
Modified on: January 7, 2024 8:00:10 PM
AMHERST — Searching for and rescuing missing people in remote areas quickly and efficiently increases survival rates, but success rates drop significantly when such operations last more than a day, experts say. That’s what it means.
Understanding that there may be a way to improve search and rescue operations, a group of students from Amherst Regional High School are one of eight recipients nationwide of Lemelson-MIT Invention Grants to respond to real-world problems. We are starting to find technical solutions. InvenTeams program.
The high school recently won a $7,500 InvenTeam grant for its participation.
John Fabel, the school’s engineering and physics teacher, initiated the application process and worked with students to put together the final proposal, which was submitted last summer.
A panel of university professors, inventors, entrepreneurs, industry experts, and university students, including former InvenTeam members, then selected the winners.
As part of the work, the Amherst invention team will collaborate with search and rescue experts, including Amherst Fire Chief Tim Nelson and Ventura County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue Mountain Team 1 Specialist Markian Steck. become.
Amherst students are building a surveillance system that will track the vital signs of search and rescue personnel, record their location, and send this data to a command center. Once completed, the system will be integrated into the existing CalTopo mapping program developed for search and rescue teams.
First, InvenTeam will develop the solution and build a working prototype that will be ready for technical review in February. The final prototype will be on display at EurekaFest, a festival of inventions at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge from June 10th to 12th.
Lee Estabrooks, director of invention education at Lemelson Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said in a statement that the inventions will focus on inequalities in health and well-being, environmental issues and safety concerns.
“These high school students are not only tomorrow’s problem solvers, but today’s problem solvers, contributing to making our world fairer, healthier, and safer. ,” Estabrooks said.
This year marks the 20th year of this initiative, and to date, 17 high school student teams have received U.S. patents for their projects.
This program combines intellectual property and invention education and works to redress historical inequalities among those who develop inventions, protect intellectual property, and commercialize their creations. I am.
Jerome H. Lemelson, one of the most prolific inventors in American history, and his wife Dorothy founded the Lemelson-MIT program in 1994.
Contact Scott Merzbach at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
