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Clarksburg High School InvenTeam members gathered during the first week of school to talk about their summer trip to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, their invention and where they are headed with it.
They were too excited about the reception their Torch Cord, a USB cable that lights up when touched, got at the EurekaFest festival at MIT to rest on their laurels.
The team, seven boys and two girls plus their faculty sponsors, spent four days at MIT in Cambridge, Mass., in June at the festival, which was sponsored by MIT and the Lemelson Foundation to inspire creativity and problem solving. The foundation was established by inventor Jerome Lemelson to encourage the inventive spirit.
"It definitely was one of the most fun trips. It's not really school work, it's like a different activity," Anik Saha, 16, a senior from Germantown, said.
The team has been working on their invention for about 18 months, first brainstorming ideas, deciding which of the many they came up with had the most practical application. They received a grant of almost $9,000 from the Lemelson MIT program last fall to develop the Torch Cord.
One bonus of getting the grant was the trip to Cambridge, where they joined students from 14 high schools from across the country in presenting their inventions.
They also listened to presentations from successful inventors, including the inventor of the Xbox game "Rock Band" and joined in invention activities.
One invention game was to create a wind turbine and use the energy from the turbine to lift a trash can.
"It was beneficial to listen to the presentations because they gave an initiation into the business," Saha said. "They gave us ideas of things to work on, things we didn't think of."
Mostly, they said they were inspired to keep working on what they believed was a good idea.
The Clarksburg team's presentation of their Torch Cord was well received by the assembled inventors, engineers and other student teams.
"A lot of people thought our presentation was really different," Saha said. "We talked about our invention and did a light show at the end. People liked the light show so they came back later to see the invention."
The light show was a perfect way to present the Torch Cord since it is a cable wrapped in black electrical tape and covered with a spiral of neon glow wire. In the darkened auditorium the show made a memorable impact, the students said.
"We wanted to make ourselves unique while trying to look professional," Saha said.
The students also enjoyed seeing the other students' inventions. A few were memorable, others more esoteric.
"I liked the agricultural lift to help handicapped people in farming get up into the equipment so they could continue working in the business," Justin Roth, 16, a junior from Germantown, said.
Other presentations by high school students included an oil-eating bacteria for use in cleaning oil spills and an Eco-Frig that uses very little electricity to cool food. The Clarksburg students said they thought these were good ideas that needed work before they would be practical.
Now back on their home turf, the Clarksburg InvenTeam plans to perfect their cord. They hope to incorporate the light into the cord rather than leave it wrapped around as it is now. They are also writing a patent for their invention, Shrey Tarpara, 17, a senior from Boyds, said.
