Eureka Fest 2017

The 2016-17 Cypress Springs High School InvenTeam developed an electric heating system to clear condensation on a firefighter’s face mask. After speaking with local firefighters at Cy-Fair Volunteer Fire Station and Training Center, we learned that fog developed on the interior surface of their face masks was a common problem and often led to injuries and fatalities. After a year of hard work, students from our team traveled with educator sponsors, Isaac Sanchez, Robyn Tompkins, and Mo Wong, to present and showcase at the 11th annual EurekaFest hosted by Lemelson-MIT.

EurekaFest was a very rewarding and fun-filled experience! It was gratifying to watch students proudly represent our school, our community, and our city after the countless hours they all put in to make our idea become a reality. Students presented and showcased our prototype at the MIT Stata Center to crowds of other students, educators, and inventors from across the country. In addition, collegiate grant winners presented their work and inspired our high school students to continue inventing and never give up. Undergraduate grant recipients shared how their high school InvenTeam experience led them to continue their education in STEM. While at EurekaFest, our students also celebrated and performed team challenges with students from the other grant recipient schools who shared the same passion in creativity and hard work. EurekaFest events ended with a finale at the Boston Museum of Science. In the upcoming years, we hope to continue our efforts in encouraging student innovation and seek out other inventions that will improve our community.

We thank Lemelson-MIT Program for awarding our team the grant, our school and district for their commitment to our students and their education, and our community for supporting us through mentorship.