Check out this article about Medway High School’s Student Showcase!

By Benjamin Paulin

Medway Public Schools Official News Blog

Posted on May 7, 2024

MEDWAY — Principal John Murray is pleased to share that Medway High School students and their peers from Uxbridge High School and Wayland High School showcased various inventions and projects during the 2024 Innovation Showcase.

Just under 20 judges from the education field, the business community and area organizations attended the event at Medway High School on May 1 to view students’ Capstone projects, provide feedback and score each project.

This year was the first that the Innovation Showcase expanded beyond Medway High School students to include students from neighboring communities. Medway students displayed seven Capstone projects in computer science, biomedical and engineering pathways; Uxbridge students displayed four Capstone projects in engineering and computer science; and Wayland students displayed a business-focused Capstone project.

Students with Innovation Pathway internships participated in the event, as well as the Medway Middle School Robotics Team and Science Fair winners. Various projects from the Intro to Engineering Design and Advanced Robotics classes were also displayed for guests, and MassHire was on hand with information.

During the showcase, judges viewed each project and asked students about their process, challenges and final product. The teams were evaluated on four categories: Problem, Plan, Prototype and Presentation.

The seven Capstone projects presented by Medway High School students included:

• Make a Makerspace by Maggie Kerr and Mina Mansour. The project involved reconfiguring an abandoned shop room into a Makerspace to promote hands-on and project-based learning in a dedicated space.

• Truncated Icosahedron Artificial Heart by Ava Fahey and Sam Maurer. They created a new, customizable, artificial heart that would give more people access to life-prolonging technology. The team designed an artificial heart made of four truncated icosahedrons, which could be powered by electromagnets and transition between two stable shapes in the future.
• Bias.ed by Vinod Tysoe, Luke Lander and Jayce Huynh. The project created a Google extension that detects bias in sentences using a lightweight AI.
• Phonix: Bridging Voices & Breaking Barriers by Meray Khela. The project focused on voice recognition services and aimed to lower language barriers and errors in understanding between AI and people with heavy accents.
• Hotshot Helmet by Kevin Maley and Cam Condlin. The team designed a helmet for wildland firefighters that incorporates a communication system and easily removable mask to promote safety and facilitate the human connection that is crucial to successful collaboration.
• Accessible Sink by Kaitlyn DiMinico and Stephanie Bonissoni. The Accessible Sink raises and lowers like an adjustable desk to meet people where they are and allow them to more easily access a sink. The project aims to help small children who have difficulty reaching a sink and faucet at home, school or in public places.
• Solar Powered Electric Airship by Jack Gould and Logan Casasanta. The project aimed to reduce carbon emissions in air freight by designing a solar-powered cargo-carrying airship.

In the overall project scoring, Make a Makerspace was awarded first place, Truncated Icosahedron Artificial Heart second and Bias.ed third. The winning teams were each awarded medals.

“The creativity and perseverance by our students impress me each year and it’s wonderful to see their ideas come to fruition after months of hard work,” said Jon Jasinski, science and engineering teacher. “Thank you to all of our judges once again, and great work by all of our student teams.”

Added Principal Murray, “It’s exciting to see our Innovation Showcase expanded this year to feature the knowledge, skill and creativity of even more students. We were also pleased to welcome Medway Middle School students once again this year, as well as MassHire and more judges, making this a true community event.”

Students across Massachusetts are also preparing for an Industry-Applied Learning Student Showcase to be held in Boston on May 10 by the One8 Foundation and Mass Learning Project. Students in grades 5-12 will share their STEM and Applied Learning projects with industry professionals.