CCDS InvenTeam March Blog

Intro

In addition to the funds raised and praise given to us within our community, the success of the CCDS InvenTeam’s Mid-Grant Technical Review was further supported by an Official Proclamation from the City of Cincinnati. Aftab Pureval, the Mayor of Cincinnati, proclaimed February 20, 2024, as “Cincinnati Country Day School InvenTeam Day” in Cincinnati. This was huge in validating the team’s efforts and motivating us to keep pushing forward on the project.   

Tech

After the presentation of their prototype, the team started looking at design options for the invention’s case and mounting mechanism. We traveled to the University of Cincinnati (UC) Ground Floor Makerspace for inspiration. Lucy, the Makerspace Unit Coordinator, gave the team a detailed tour of the facility and demonstrated how a lot of the industrial sized fabrication equipment operated. After the tour, Lucy looked at what we’ve been working on and gave us helpful feedback on how to adjust the laser lines and create a waterproof casing for the device.  

Simultaneously, it was all hands-on deck for the entire InvenTeam in recording sounds for the AI model. To find time for all the recording, the team utilized CCDX week, a yearly week-long event where the school participates in different forms of experiential learning courses. The InvenTeam worked daily during CCDX week recording sounds of cars, bikes, etc. to train the AI model. After training, the model was able to successfully identify a few sounds, and the model will only get better with more time and training.  

Finally, Alex, our technical lead, got to work on designing, ordering, and assembling new circuit boards. The new circuit boards made the projected laser lines blink in tandem with their respective turn signals, resolving an issue in the original prototype.  

Communications 

Following the milestone of the Mid-Grant Technical Review, the focus of the communications team has shifted toward the technical side as we work to refine the prototype for EurekaFest. However, the communications team has continued to work in a more abbreviated format, reaching out to the media to spread the news about our prototype and presentation. We are planning to meet again with a news outlet about the Mid-grant technical review and the progress we have made in the development of our invention. The communications team met again with the lawyer who has been assisting us to ensure the protection of our invention through the creation of an LLC to hold intellectual property rights. During March, team members also created team sweatshirts using the CCDS InvenTeams logo, learning how to use a heat press along the way.  

Local government officials continued to support us. We met with Cincinnati City Councilmember Mark Jeffreys who shared with us his plans to address cycling safety and offered to spread the word about our invention.