PennDOT Announces Statewide Innovations Challenge Winner

PennDOT Announces Statewide Innovations Challenge Winner

5/3/2018-KING OF PRUSSIA

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) today announced
that a
team of students from The Haverford School, Montgomery County, has been
selected as the statewide winner for its inaugural Innovations Challenge.

"Since last fall, students have been working hard to solve this year's
challenge," said PennDOT Secretary Leslie S. Richards. "My personal thanks
to
all who took part in the PennDOT Innovations Challenge this year. I am
impressed by all of the innovative ideas we received to help make
Pennsylvania
a safer place to be."

Launched this school year, the PennDOT Innovations Challenge is a statewide

competition that called on teams of students in ninth through 11th grade to
use
their problem solving, creative and strategic-thinking abilities to solve a

specific real-world transportation challenge. Students were asked to look
at
technologies and innovative methods, aside from traditional paid
advertising,
marketing and social media channels, that can be developed in the next five
to
10 years to curb unsafe teen driving practices.

Mentored by Holly Golecki, Upper School Science, Director of Robotics,
statewide winning team members include: Yiheng Chen, Micky Fairorth, Aram
LaVan
and Will Vauclain.

The team's innovation was a machine-learning based attention analysis tool
for
use on smartphones that incorporates the device's existing technology.
Using
the built-in high-precision accelerometer and gyroscope, the platform can
detect real-time speed, acceleration and send alerts when unsafe driving
practices are detected. Additionally, since the accelerometer can detect
lane
changes and drifts, it can monitor the frequency and quality of the teen's
driving behavior and focus.

Seven regional winners were selected from 71 total entries to move on to
compete in the statewide competition on April 24 in Harrisburg. Winning
teams
presented their solution to this year's challenge to Richards and a panel
of
PennDOT judges who selected the statewide winner.

"I commend The Haverford School for their innovative solution to this
ongoing
problem," Richards said. "I am impressed with their efforts and encouraged
for
the future knowing that bright young minds share the department's passion
for
safety."

Follow PennDOT on Twitter at www.twitter.com/PennDOTNews and like the
department on Facebook at
www.facebook.com/PennsylvaniaDepartmentofTransportation and Instagram at
www.instagram.com/PennsylvaniaDOT.

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