Gillette Road Middle School Students Take Top Honors in CNY Innovation Challenge

Earlier this month, a team of 7th grade students from Gillette Road Middle School participated in the CNY Innovation Challenge and walked away with the top prize for their efforts. The event asks students to come up with creative solutions that can be developed into marketable products. Students design and develop their product, create a marketing plan and pitch the idea to a panel of judges. This year’s CNY Innovation Challenge was held at the Maker Faire Syracuse at the SRC Arena at Onondaga Community College on April 2. The Gillette Road team of Alyssa Bubniak, Elvis Culum and Liam Pierce Joss, with oversight from teacher Claudia Hertzberg, came up with the idea for a cell phone “pop socket” that automatically charges the device to which it is attached. For their idea, plan and pitch, the students were awarded first place and a $500 prize in the competition for their age group.

In discussing the concept, Liam said since the idea was to come up with a solution to an everyday problem and since most people use their phones every day, it made sense to come up with a solution for charging them. Liam hopes to pursue a career in physics in the future. If the project garners support, there is the potential for it to be developed in real life.

Congratulations to these very talented and innovative students!