Upper St. Clair STEM team earns special recognition in national challenge
A team from Upper St. Clair High School was one of just 18 high school STEM teams from throughout the United States to earn recognition in the REACH Challenge.
Receiving Special Recognition was the team of Priyasha Itani, Aditri Thakur, Anisha Patel, Ansh Goyal, Danny Shanholtzer, Priyanka Palayekar and Susan Liu.
The Upper St. Clair students worked collaboratively to solve the design challenge “Shoe Support,” to assist individuals with putting on a shoe when faced with limited foot mobility. To better understand the issue, the team enlisted the expertise of classmate Danny, who faces physical challenges and navigates the high school via a wheelchair and forearm crutches.
“Our project made it easier for our user-expert to put on his shoes. Danny can now put on his shoes with less effort and less external assistance,” team members wrote in their technical paper. “We want to further develop our prototype to a point where Danny will be able to put on his shoes by himself.”
For its Special Recognition, Upper St. Clair’s team earned a $100 Harbor Freight gift card along with an awards banner.
In addition to helping to solve a challenge for Danny and others, the REACH Challenge was enlightening for the Upper St. Clair students.
“The REACH Challenge has taught us the importance of working as a team and the importance of accessibility,” they wrote. “Before this project, we saw putting on shoes as a daily, trivial task; however, after working with Danny, we realized that there is still a way to go to create a more inclusive and effective world.”
To watch a video about the project, visit www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLUtK8l-yow.