Voters Needed! 2 UCS Lego Teams Compete In Global Innovations Contest

Two Utica Community Schools all-star Lego robotics teams need the community’s help to bring their ideas on how to solve real-world food safety problems to fruition.

Online voting has begun for the Global Innovations Competition, sponsored by First Lego League. The competition will award a team that has come up with a viable food safety invention the opportunity to work with product development and marketing experts to transform their invention into a product reality.

Crissman Team (2229) the Bad Apples, Contaminated to the Core and Roberts Elementary Robo Rovers (3531) HyGenie 4200 are two of six Michigan teams competing in the global competition.

Bad Apples, Contaminated to the Core

The Bad Apples, Contaminated to the Core, is made up of nine Crissman Elementary School students, ranging from third to sixth grade.

Parent Coach Amy Roy, who has two students on the team, said this is the second year the local robotics teams have been offered a chance to compete in the global research competition after their season has come to an end.

The teams were tasked with a research project, by picking a food, following its journey from ground to your dinner table and finding out where contamination may occur along the way.

The Crissman team chose to research an apple, and found that apples give off ethylene gas, a ripening hormone, which can affect the shelf life of nearby fruits and vegetables.

The Bad Apples, Contaminated to the Core team came up the idea to install an ethylene gas filter in home refrigerators. The filter would oxidize the ethylene gas by using potassium permanganate.

The devices would cost less than $10 and would help keep fruits and vegetables fresh longer.

“It’s a definite viable solution,” said Roy.  “There are actually companies that make huge units for reefers – shipping companies use them. They are called power pellets.”

To vote for the Bad Apples, Continmated to the Core, CLICK HERE.

Robo Robers

The Robo Rovers, made up of ten students ranging from fifth grade Roberts Elementary students to eighth grade Malow Junior High students, invented the HyGenie 4200, which evaluates hand-washing behavior at restaurants.

The HyGenie 4200 is based on the technology of the Xbox Kinect® game system. The infrared detector system could be mounted over the sink in where ever food service employees wash their hands. The employees hand-washing behavior is scored and feedback is provided to the employee, while statistics are sent to restaurant managers. The advanced Hygenie 4200 would weave interactive games while employees washed their hands.

Robo Rovers Parent Coach John Ogden said the students wanted to find a way to entice a young person to change their hand-washing behavior. “What better way then to make it fun and interactive.”

Ogden said students visited 18 local restaurants to conduct market research and got great feedback on their idea.

“There is nothing like a meaningful challenge to bring a team together to work hard,” said Ogden, who has been coaching his son on the Robo Rovers for four years.

To vote for the Robo Rovers, CLICK HERE.

Contest Rules

Public online voting ends March 1 at 5 p.m. Each team can be voted for only once in a 24-hour period.

Online voting will select ten semi-finalist teams.  A panel of judges will select an additional ten (10) semi-finalists based on merit.   A final panel of judges will consider the twenty (20) semi-finalists.  From the twenty (20) semi-finalists, the final judging panel will select three (3) finalists (one (1) winning team and two (2) runners-up)  based on the following criteria:

    * Solution clearly results from the current FLL Challenge
    * Feasibility
    * Originality/Creativity
    * Efficiency: Simplicity/cost-effectiveness
    * Public benefit
    * Commercial viability

The three (3) finalist teams (one (1) winner and two (2) runners-up) will be recognized at an awards ceremony hosted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in Alexandria, VA, USA.