Student inventors raise funds for trip
EL RENO — Fitness and activity tracker devices rake in $2.5 billion in annual sales worldwide.
Turns out, data is tracked for activity trackers by the folks at Statista. com, who forecast sales to surpass the $3 billion annual threshold within the next two to three years. The numbers suggest consumers love wearable tech, which is now sold in watches, wristbands, eyewear and shoes.
A team of students at Canadian Valley Technology Center’s El Reno campus is attempting to ride the wave with a new concept — the “fit belt.” A lot of very smart people at Massachusetts Institute of Technology are intrigued enough to invite the students to Cambridge, Massachusetts, to share their invention. Canadian Valley Technology Center’s InvenTeam is composed of seven students, representing four area high schools and three career program areas.
The team, along with two Canadian Valley staff members, have begun fundraising efforts to pay for airfare so they can attend the June 2019 EurekaFest.
The invitation-only event showcases working prototypes of inventions developed by high school and college teams nationwide each year.
MIT’s School of Engineering annually administers grants of up to $10,000 to celebrate inventors or “InvenTeams” and to inspire students to pursue creative lives and careers. Grants are courtesy of a foundation started by American inventor Jerome H. Lemelson.
MIT will pick up the tab for room and board on campus during the June 18-21 event in which 15 InvenTeams from across the country will discuss how they moved through challenges and built an invention during the school year.
So far, nobody has commercially produced a smart waist product with an artificial intelligence on board, said Sierra Ritchie, a Yukon High School senior who is the InvenTeam administrative student leader.
She is enrolled in Early Care and Education at Canadian Valley Technology Center. The team actually conceived the idea last school year while spending time in the school’s Makerspace Lab, Ritchie said.
Makerspaces are places in which people with shared interests can meet to share ideas and knowledge in order to create or build things.
“We came in during break, and it became a weekly thing,” she said.
The fit belt concept will allow wearers to keep track of various activities and possibly measure body mass index (BMI), Ritchie said.
All seven students have defined roles on the team. According to InvenTeam rules, students must organize the work and build the invention themselves.
The planned fit belt device ideally will use sensors for measurements and then connect with a cellphone to track data, said Don Wilson, project adviser and Canadian Valley Technology Center’s project-based learning coordinator. The device is expected to connect wirelessly with Apple’s Health app, he said.
Four of the other InvenTeam members are enrolled in Canadian Valley Technology Center’s Computer Information Systems program. They are Perry Burkhart, of Union City; Chase Weaver, of Piedmont; Reed Kessler, of Mustang; and Cooper Hollingsworth, of Mustang.
Also on the team is Diesel Technology student Destany Pierce, of Yukon; and Hannah Howie, of Yukon, who is enrolled in Early Care and Education.
Airfare cannot be paid for by the school, so the group must raise needed funds on its own. To help, call Wilson at 422-2313.