South Orange Middle Schoolers Win Robotics Competition

A robotics team made up of South Orange Middle School seventh graders won first prize for best innovative solution to problems that arise during natural disasters. 

Inspired by Hurricane Sandy, the team focused on flooding, the leading cause of weather-related deaths,  and invented a device that could warn motorists who mistakenly believe roads are safe.

The team, Juliette Arana, Mary Arevalo, Stephen Lehren, and Miranda Lipetz, built a computerized robotic prototype, which they call The Life Sensor, a detection system to alert drivers to possibly hazardous conditions. 

The competition is part of the First Lego League robotics competition, where students ages 10 to 14 demonstrate skills in designing robots as well as researching real-world problems and proposing innovative solutions.

This year's theme was "Nature's Fury" and the SOMS team was awarded first place for their project in the Montclair Society of Engineers Qualifying Tournament in Clifton on Saturday, November 23. The SOMS students are coached by Andy Lehren and Laurie Tarkan, and sponsored by St. Andrew and Holy Communion Church in South Orange.

During the competition, the students asked the judges, "Did you ever drive through a large puddle on the road and think to yourself, 'it’s not that deep.' This is risky thinking." 

Over half of all flood-related drownings happen when a vehicle is driven into hazardous flood water, the students' research found. That led them to invent something that takes the psychology out of judging safe puddles.

Their solution is simple, inexpensive and most importantly can save lives. It is a pre-detection water sensor that fits underneath the bumper of cars.

The team visited Dr. Mishah U. Salman, a Mechanical Engineering Professor at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, who offered some ideas on improving the design and helped to gauge the cost of the device.

When the team looked for existing solutions to this issue, they found absolutely nothing for the car. They consulted with an executive in the auto industry, who confirmed that there is no detection device on the market. 

The only thing they found in their research was advice about avoiding puddles, and getting to higher ground during a flash flood. NOAA uses the slogan to drive home the point: “Turn Around, Don’t Drown.”  

The SOMS 7th graders may be onto a device that's even better than that advice.