Needham High Student Tries to "Build it Better"

The adage goes that you can't build a better mouse trap, but what about a bike rack?

Liam Walsh, a Needham High School sophomore has a couple of suggestions to improve a recently-installed bike rack at the school. These he submitted to Raytheon's MathMovesU, a program aimed at getting middle and high school students interested in math and science, which he learned about through a school bulletin.

Walsh's design is one of ten finalists in the contest, currently ranked third. The winning entry will net his/her school a $2,000 prize. 

The problem Walsh noticed was that the bike rack by the school's main entrance is not being used. He believes this is because of its proximity to the school entrance and exposure to the elements leave bikes vulnerable to rust and vandalism. He says this keeps many of the school's over 1,000 students from bringing bikes to school, and contributes to end-of-the-day traffic in the neighborhood surrounding the school.

To solve that, he went into a drafting program he had used before, Trimble SketchUp and "built it better." There are two options in his video, a more and less expensive way to cover the rack (see photos).

The more expensive option places the bike rack in a covered alcove, he has built into the neighboring wall in his drawings. For the cheaper alternative, Walsh rotated the bike rack and placed nearer the wall, then covered it with a roof.

He told Patch, in an email, that he had had the idea to put the bike rack inside a hole in the wall before the contest, but through the contest also came up with the idea for the second option.

"A couple weeks ago, I received an email from a woman who organizes the contest. I wasn't sure how many total entries there were, but I was certainly surprised and grateful to have made it to the top ten finalists," Walsh said.

Walsh says he is lucky to have his design selected. However, even if he doesn't get enough votes to win the competition, he plans to seek out other grants and put his idea to school administrators for support of his design.

"I'd say, for anyone whose idea didn't get recognized, that they shouldn't just stop there." Walsh went on to say, "That applies outside this contest as well. For any idea you have, you should stick with it, make changes, and keep pushing it forward."

Voting for the contest ends at 6 p.m. Friday, May 17.

To see the finalists and vote on your favorite designs, visit the MathMovesU OfferPop page on Facebook.

[Update: As orignally reported, the contest ends on May 17. This has been corrected again. 6:15 p.m.]