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ELHS students present STEM invention at Ohio Statehouse

EAST LIVERPOOL -- East Liverpool High School's Daylin Clark, Elijah Grog, Kiera Mae Willis and Nathan Schwerha represented East Liverpool High School's STEM program as student-inventors when they presented their invention at the Ohio Invention Convention State Finals on Jan. 16 at the Ohio Statehouse.  

The students --instructed to create an invention for the construction industry last spring --teamed up and created Volt Track. 

Kiera Mae said the team was interested in the 3D printing of houses and thought they would work. But there were flaws in the process, and they wanted to address those flaws. 

"There is a lot of construction waste before and after construction which makes them inefficient for having on the market, so we invented tubing to allow the electrical systems to be integrated while the 3D house is printing," Kiera Mae said. "It prints right over top of our tubing allowing the wires go through the house and you don't have to carve out once the concrete is dry to put in the wires." 

Kiera Mae explained that traditionally 3D houses are printed and once the concrete dries, concrete would have to be removed from the structure to install the wiring, but the Volt Track tubing allows the wiring to be implemented by pausing the 3D printing machine.  

Elijah said the tubes --which have a lot of diverse applications--are made to be laid in the concrete with the 3D printer paused and then printing resumes and the tubes for running the wiring are embedded within the 3D printed structure. 

Elijah said the team who started out with a rough idea of what they wanted to do has been working on the project on-and-off for the past year and that the group combined their interests of construction, housing and electric to come up with the idea for the project and after doing research, they started making models and putting ideas down. They then started 3D printing and testing the product to see if it would work or not.  

"I would say the product is successful and would definitely work as it is, but I think there is room for growth," Elijah said. "I think there is definitely some parts of it that could be improved or changed about working better in different circumstances --but I think overall it's a success right now. 

The team won the regional competition at Invent to Make with this project and went on to be finalists for State Manufacturing and Tools.  

The project was also presented at COSI in Columbus, where they found out that they qualified for the state finals.  

During the team's recent trip to Columbus for the Ohio Invention Convention, the students presented their invention to industry professionals who had the ability to make their invention public and to receive recognition for the project.  

Kiera Mae said the team received proclamations showing their work was recognized and paperwork to apply for a copyright if they desire on Volt track while they were at the Statehouse. 

The students are considering seeking copyright for their work.  

The four students and their instructor Jerry Bartlett presented along with 55 other award-winning inventors from across Ohio, according to Megan Hernandez, communications, East Liverpool City Schools.  

Nathan said it was "crazy" that the project made it this far and he thought it was just a project Bartlett gave them to do for the nine weeks, and he didn't know it was for a big contest.  

"It feels great being recognized for something that isn't around here, because everybody sees everything around here, but nobody sees anything from here." said Nathan, who is looking to become an electrician.

Nathan noted that he can definitely implement this project in the future, but not sure if he will because of his focus on attending a technical college, not being an engineering major.  

Daylin, who is considering architecture, but isn't quite sure yet, just that it will be something along the lines of construction or engineering, said whichever profession he chooses, his work on this project will be beneficial because it helped him develop skills such as problem solving, working as a team and learning to improvise. 

He said he hasn't planned on designing 3D houses, but if he does, using the Volt Track in his designs could be a possibility.  

All four students found satisfaction in their work on the invention.  

For Elijah, who plans to major in engineering, it was seeing the progression of the product from an idea to something finished and usable. Nathan also found going from an idea to a physical model is the most satisfying part. Daylin found satisfaction in the problem solving which is something he has always enjoyed and found himself to be good at, and he also enjoyed taking something that didn't work and making it work. For Kiera Mae, it was finishing the research, putting the documentation together and seeing the progression on paper. She also feels it is a good project to start off her career with. She plans to study biomedical engineering.

Bartlett, said the students worked very hard this year to make something he had never heard of come to a reality and it was impressive to see. 

"They came up with the idea out of absolutely nothing and made it into quite the cool project that received the recognition it deserves," Bartlett said.  

Bartlett noted that with East Liverpool students not always being well known for their accomplishments, it was really good for the students to see something they had done be appreciated at a higher level. He also said 3D printed houses are becoming somewhat of an issue around the area and the students' invention could be a gateway into making 3D printed structures more feasible for people.

While Volt Track earned the students the prestigious Industry Award for Manufacturing and Tools, they did not move forward to the national competition.  They are, however, going to continue working with the project and present it at SkillsUSA in the spring.