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Solve for Tomorrow: High School Inventions

What was your greatest high school achievement? What about an award-winning invention?

Three teams were named national winners and awarded $100,000 each for their inventions as part of the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow Competition.

An all-girl team from Bloomington, Indiana designed a headband that shields an athlete’s hearing aid from the elements, with a twist. It also uses a motion sensor to detect nearby movement and warns the athlete with a gentle vibration. Their headband, Storm Shield, received praise from Olympian Tamika Catchings for its potential to improve gameplay for athletes with hearing disabilities; no device like it exists yet on the hearing-aid market.

Another team, from Wilmington, Delaware, created AKQUA-Gel – a biodegradable hydrogel-based bandage that uses a temperature and impedance sensor to monitor wounds. Chemical oxidation causes the bandage to change color, and users can upload pictures of the bandage to a smartphone app that helps monitor progress. The bandage can also release a controlled amount of antibiotic ointment. This unique solution could help reduce strain on hospitals.

The third champion team from Centerton, Arkansas developed a smartphone app that identifies signs of oral cancer. Oral Scan determines and classifies stages of oral cancer from pictures taken inside the mouth. The team collaborated with four universities and three hospitals to compile a dataset of reference images to train their artificial intelligence model. This app could improve access to early diagnosis, and it’s cheaper than a standard screening.

From high school to the Patent office!

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Associate Producer, A Moment of Science