LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- They're only in elementary and middle school, but students at Portland Christian School might just have the next million-dollar idea.
The rookie robotics team is made up of fourth-seventh graders: Cameron Hamilton, Noah Lynigner, Lydia Kratt, Austin Weaver, Isaac Cooper and Seth Warner.
“I want to be an astrophysicist,” fourth-grade Noah said.
The students put their heads together to create a life-changing invention.
“Lydia has some friends, and they don’t have any depth perception,” Noah said. “We spoke with them, and we found it’s frightening to go on escalators because they don’t know when to get on and off.”
The device the team engineered vibrates to tell people who are visually impaired when it’s time to exit and escalator.
“There is like one thing that’s similar to ours, which is like the noise on walking escalators,” Lyninger said. “But again, that really doesn't help with the depth perception thing.”
The team is in its first year with the school, and it’s already won awards including a certificate of achievement for the Rising Star award and Outstanding Mechanical Design. The device has been picked up by a local patent attorney, and the next step is working to get it inside places like airports and arenas.
“It’s not about patents. It's not about awards,” said Robert Toole, robotics team coach and mentor at Portland Christian School. “It's about exposing young kids to science technology, engineering and math and maybe having a dream that they might want to be an engineer or a scientist and they want to come up with the next vaccine or cancer cure. Those are super stars. Those are rock stars in my mind.”
The team heads to the First Lego League Kentucky State Championship tournament on Saturday at Northern Kentucky University.
“It makes me feel very proud of the team and happy that I’m able to help people at my age,” Noah said.
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