Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
Aaron Chand answers a question as the rest of Tucumcari High School's Diamondback STEM team listens during a presentation Wednesday of its WALTR system at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Tucumcari High School's STEM team last week presented their alert-system invention to an actual and virtual audience at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The Diamondback STEM team was one of only 10 teams in the United States last fall that landed a prestigious $7,500 grant and other support from the Lemelson-MIT InvenTeam program to build a problem-solving invention.
Tucumcari was the only New Mexico team to receive the grant and only the fourth in the program's nearly 20-year history.
The Tucumcari team presented its WALTR system, which stands for Worksite Alarm Light Transmitter Receiver, to a live audience at MIT. The event also was livestreamed. WALTR is an instant electronic warning system designed for construction and agricultural zones.
Team members MiKayla Klinger, Aaron Chand and Marcus Lopez, after showing a video of a crane collapse at a construction site in France, said the agriculture and construction sectors see thousands of injuries per year and explained how the WALTR system can instantly alert workers about imminent hazards.
They talked about how their device was faster and required less infrastructure, explained its audio and visual cues to alert users and touted its reliability. The device cost only about $32 in materials.
The team, which also consists of Rachel Mardo, Baylee Salvador, Sariah Mardo, Nolan Ryen and Justin Keith, also walked onto the stage after the presentation, where they were peppered with questions about its design, the loudness of the alarm, its signal range and possible problems with accidental activation.
Klinger, in short, said the device was about "saving lives and money."
The team's mentor, Tommy Evans, said he was impressed his team members' poise during the presentation.
"They were the best ones there," he said during a phone interview. "They were good, that is for sure."
Evans said Microsoft's What's Next program will help the team land a patent for the device for free.
He said the team also is looking at options to make the device available to other industries, including possibly law enforcement and the oil and gas industry.
Evans said the trip, which was funded by donations and fundraisers, will include a few "cultural enrichment" side trips in the Northeast, including Little Italy in Boston. The team will head back home this week.
