SourceAmerica announces the finalists of its 2022 IDEATE Engineering Competition. Three college and five high school teams from across the country will compete in separate divisions in the virtual 2022 IDEATE Finals event on April 13.

IDEATE stands for Imagine, Design, & Evaluate Assistive Technologies for Employment. The national engineering challenge encourages high school and college students to create assistive technology that increases workplace success for people with disabilities. In addition, student teams collaborate with a person with a disability in their community to evaluate a need and develop an innovative solution that makes a real difference.

How SourceAmerica IDEATE Works

The SourceAmerica IDEATE Engineering Competition is free to enter and offers student teams a range of benefits and prizes, including monetary prizes, engineering project experience which can be leveraged for college applications, as well as an internship at SourceAmerica. Finalist teams will present their projects, receive rankings from the judges based on scalability, repeatability and impact; and participate in an awards ceremony for winners. Judges for IDEATE are SourceAmerica experts in workforce development and productivity engineering.

“Through innovation and imagination, SourceAmerica is encouraging the next generation of engineers to discover solutions that improve employment opportunities and experiences for people with disabilities,” says Shane Kanady, vice president of workforce development. “This year’s teams have demonstrated a commitment to an inclusive workplace by creating assistive technology.”

College Team Finalists

  1. Ohio University – Athens, Ohio
    Team: OU Stake Labeler
    Project: Staking a Claim on a More Effective and Efficient Process
    The Ohio University team developed a stake labeler machine to help employees with disabilities more efficiently and effectively label yard stakes.
  2. California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo – San Luis Obispo, California
    Team: Cal Poly SLO
    Project: Easing the Way to Increased Job Comfort and Efficiency with eZcart
    The California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo team designed and created the eZcart: a new custodial cart that increases on-the-job comfort and efficiency.
  3. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University – Blacksburg, Virginia
    Team: Team Juvo
    Project: Achieving Greater Productivity with the Assembly Base
    The Virginia Tech team designed The Assembly Base platform to increase productivity and in turn, help them achieve their financial and independence goals.

High School Team Finalists

  1. Brentwood High School – Brentwood, New York
    Team: Brentwood Research Engineers
    Project: Scoring a Victory for Increased Productivity and Wages with the Victory Sealer
    The Brentwood High School engineering team created an assistive device for heat sealing packages called The Victory Sealer to enable the one-handed operation of a typical heat seal press.
  2. Diamond Bar High School – Diamond Bar, California
    Team: DB Engineers
    Project: Earning the Sweet Taste of Success with an Improved Candy Labeling Process
    The Diamond Bar High School team designed an improvement process for applying labels to candy containers. The team’s final design consisted of two automated parts: a label applicator and a label dispenser.
  3. Poolesville High School – Poolesville, Maryland
    Team: Team Better Tomorrow
    Project: Sealing the Deal on New Job Opportunities with a Resealing Device
    The Poolesville High School team combined fiber-optic sensing with an audible indicator to enable visually impaired individuals to independently reseal defective plastic bags.
  4. Marquette Catholic High School – Alton, Illinois
    Team: Tristar Enterprises
    Project: Breaking Down Barriers with the Bolder
    The Marquette Catholic High School team built a device called the Bolder that helps employees more easily and efficiently fold boxes for dog bones.
  5. Wethersfield High School – Wethersfield, Connecticut
    Team: WHS Jets
    Project: Achieving SUPER Results with the S.U.P.
    The Wethersfield High School team built a device called the S.U.P. (Super Ultimate Pusher) that helps employees insert plastic spacers into bottle caps.

The SourceAmerica 2022 IDEATE Competition Finals event is free to attend. Registration is open to the public. It will be held virtually to address the ongoing complexity of the COVID-19 pandemic.

[Source(s): SourceAmerica, PR Newswire]

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