Middlesex County Academy for Science, Math and Engineering Technologies seniors, from left, Kipsy Quevada, Gregory Goldshteyn, Shrey Medniratta, Varun Gupta, Inderdeep Grewal and Maulik Doshi are part of a team that won a $10,000 grant to develop an airborne drone for spraying crops on small farms. EDISON — A voice-activated robbery alarm for convenience stores and a cane to help the visually impaired by vibrating when it senses a barrier were among the inventions presented by students at the Middlesex County Academy for Science, Math and Engineering Technologies.
The students’ designs were displayed during the annual Senior Projects Showcase on June 6 at the academy in Edison.
Guided by engineering instructors Enzo Paterno and George Lopac, the seniors also displayed an electronic brake for wheelchairs; a light switch that operates by both light and motion; a voice-controlled device to assist people with disabilities in operating household appliances; a scanner to keep track of personal valuables; a robotic intravenous apparatus to follow patients as they move around hospitals; an automatic pet door using radio-frequency identification technology; and a safety sensor to use on barbells while exercising.
Six seniors, six juniors and a sophomore were involved the entire school year in the development of an airborne drone that would be used on small farms to spray crops. The students were among 15 high school teams in the U.S. to receive $10,000 grants as part of the Lemelson-MIT Inven- Team Program.
Senior Varun Gupta of Edison explained that the team performed tests on the drone on a Christmas tree farm in Cranbury and recently used it to take video with an iPhone strapped to the bottom. The video images program distinguish between trees and grass.
“Right now, the challenge to get it to navigate between the trees,” Varun said.
The Edison Academy team showcased the drone at MIT on June 19, which forced them to postpone their final exams until the last week of school. For the seniors graduation took place on June 26.
Faith Szeto and Ayushi Pathak, both of Edison, demonstrated a device that would automatically call the police if certain words are heard in a store.
“If it hears something that a robber is likely to say, such as,
Everybody get down’ or ‘I have a gun,’ it calls law enforcement,” Szeto said.
The device, which uses Google voice-recognition technology, also would respond to code words uttered by an employee, and has a switch to indicate a false alarm. Szeto and Pathak have been refining the voice-recognition program to recognize robbers who might speak with an accent.
Benjamin Chen of Old Bridge, Ruky Rupasinghe of Woodbridge, Raj Patel of South Plainfield and Erwin Feng of Monroe explained how their cane for the blind uses an ultrasonic sensor and four motors to intensify vibrations as a user gets closer to an object.
All Edison Academy seniors are required to invent a new product or process, or to improve an existing one. They work on their projects throughout the school year their civil and mechanical engineering classes, and electrical and computer engineering classes. They must keep a lab journal, meet deadlines each marking period, and make presentations to teachers and classmates along the way.