Middle schoolers’ off-the-grid streetlight design wins $2,500 prize

NORWALK — A group of middle schoolers from Ponus Ridge STEAM Academy have been selected as a state finalist in the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow competition.

With their selection, the team won a $2,500 prize package, “including Samsung products and classroom resources,” the Samsung competition’s website said.

The group of students includes Dylon Cumin, Anusha Mundra, Isabella Oliver, Alfredo Martinez, Nela Naranjo, Dorian Gonzalez, Kaleb Dietl, Marlon Modeste, Jacob Smalick, Viti Patel, Jacob Smalick, Juan Araque, Jacob Barstow and Noor Fatima.

The student group is one of 300 state finalists selected across the country for their project designing a new streetlight.

“Students plan to research and design a streetlight that will harness both solar energy and storm runoff water for power,” a statement from Norwalk Public Schools said. “This invention seeks to improve the environment by removing many streetlights from the electrical grid.”

Led by STEAhM coordinator Colleen Brosnan and teacher Joe Giandurco, the students aimed to make more energy available to their community and submitted an activity plan Jan. 11 detailing how their project would address their community issue.

Giandurco also worked with a group of students in 2020 in the Samsung competition.

The classroom resources that came with their prize package are aimed to help the students complete their activity plan, the Solve for Tomorrow site said.

Next in the competition, Samsung will select 50 state winners from among the 300 finalists; those winners will each earn a $12,000 prize package of more Samsung products and classroom resources, in addition to being partnered with a Samsung employee mentor.

The Samsung Solve for Tomorrow competition is open to middle schoolers and high schoolers in grades 6 through 12 from public or charter schools that are at least 50 percent publicly funded.

According to its website, Solve for Tomorrow is a “global education initiative” across 22 countries involving 1.8 million contestants that enables students to “dream, develop, and build real-world solutions to enact positive social change.”