Plymouth Student Wins at National Science Fair

Tricia Delph, 16, studies CAD/CAM, or computer aided design and computer aided manufacturing at Bristol-Plymouth Technical High School. Although she's deaf and uses sign language to communitcate, she's fully mainstreamed in classes, and uses an interpreter to talk with her teachers.

"She's very creative and excels at math," Tricia's mom, Patty Delph, said. Patty acted as interpreter for her daughter during a recent interview with Plymouth Patch.

It was Tricia's creative and mathematical talents that convinced her READS teacher Laurie Achin to recommend Tricia apply to a science fair dedicated to deaf and hard of hearing students.

More than 1,000 middle and high school students from across the country apply to attend the RIT National Science Fair for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Students at Rochester Institute of Technology's National Technical Institute for the Deaf in Rochester, New York, of the 1,000, only 50 from each category are selected to present their projects.

Tricia was one of the 50.

The goal of the science fair, in its eighth year, is to promote interest in technology, science, engineering and math among 6th through 12th graders who are deaf or hard of hearing.

By the time Tricia found out she was accepted, she only had six weeks to build her project, a robot built to enter toxic environments and dispose of explosives.

Tricia named it Lily.

The inspiration for the robot is Tricia's uncle, Bob Burns, who happens to be a robotic engineer for the military. 

Tricia spent 10 to 12 hours every Saturday and Sunday for six weeks at her uncle's house, working on Lily.

The housing is made from PVC pipe and sheets she cut to size, she built the tank-like treads from a kit, built the battery, motherboard and motor housings, did programming and figured out every problem every step of the way. The only thing Tricia didn't do was soldering the wires.

"The solder was over 500 degrees and I didn't feel comfortable doing it," Tricia said.

Her uncle did it for her.

Every step of the way, Tricia took notes and photos and when Lily was finally complete she had an 86-page project manual detailing each step in the process, the materials used, and the problems encountered, and there were problems.

The headlights were too dim, then they were angled wrong, the drive shaft barely fit, the hot pink paint job cracked, revealing the white primer beneath, but it looks like lightning so Tricia decided she liked it. The biggest problem two motors weren’t strong enough to actually move Lily.

The competition was in a few days and the treads would not move when Lily was on the ground. The twin motors didn’t have enough torque to move the nearly 20-pound robot.

Tricia was so worried she actually made her mother, Patty, call the fair organizers to see if she could still enter Lily, despite the fact that the robot didn’t do what it was supposed to.

The organizers said of course they wanted to see her project and Tricia’s dad and uncle built a display block for Lily to sit on during the fair.

In March, Tricia and her family drove to Rochester to the fair. Tricia may have been nervous, but she needn't have been.

Lily the Robot was so popular that while only three judges actually judged the project, more than a dozen came over to look at it.

"One of the judges told me Lily was fantastic 'I wish I could stay all day,'" Tricia said. "He asked how I would improve Lily and I told him I'd change the motors, make it wireless, and add a manipulator arm so it can pick things up and move them."

Her one regret, if it can be called that, was the robot's immobility. Tricia and her mom think if Lily had moved the way she'd planned, Tricia would have won first prize.

But second place and a $300 prize isn't so bad.

Tricia is putting the money "back into my baby." She's already bought more powerful motors for Lily.

Watch Tricia Delph demonstrate how Lily the Robot works.

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