Special to the Record
The “Superbikers” design team at Chelsea High School advanced to the finals of the National Texas Instruments Codes Contest by creating an automated bike headlight!
A team of stellar engineering students at Chelsea High School have advanced to the finals of the national Texas Instruments (TI) Codes Contest.
CHS students Kimberly Ramirez Garcia and Cesia Flores Rodriguez, with the support of teachers Daniel Rodriguez and Moriah Lim, submitted the “Superbikers” design proposal, a design for an automated bike headlight that is one of five finalists in the nationwide contest. After being selected to the second round, Kimberly and Cesia created a short video that highlights their completed project. Their design and video were one of five submissions selected by TI judges that will now be voted on by the public to choose the grand prize winners and runners-up.
Readers can go to the Chelsea Public Schools website to vote for Kimberly and Cesia’s design. Voting ends on Friday, May 3. The winning team will receive a $250 gift card and a new TI-Innovator™ Hub, TI-Innovator™ Rover, TI graphing calculator, and T-shirt for each member, while the second and third place teams will receive a TI graphing calculator and T-shirt for each member.
The Superbikers design is an automated bike headlight. The design includes three major components: the TI Innovator Hub, the TI Calculator, and the TI Breadboard. The bike has sensors that send data to the TI devices, which in turn will indicate how much voltage to send from a 9-volt battery to the breadboard, which consists of white LED lights. Sensors will enable the light to turn on automatically when someone gets on the bike and shut off when someone gets off.
The design was constructed under the premise of the contest’s challenge: Devise a solution that automates or optimizes a process or product, based on the theme “safety and security.” The students identified that their product will allow bike riders to see better at night, and enable motorists to see bicyclists better. The design is also eco-friendly as it reduces its energy use by adjusting to the ambient light around it.
The students commented, “We are creating automatic headlights for bikes that turn on at night and can change their brightness depending on how much light it detects. This is to be able to see better while riding at night so that you can avoid rats, raccoons, or the scariest rodent out there… your teacher.”
Six total student groups submitted designs into the contest, three of which advanced to the second round. In addition to the Superbikers, the “Petsafe” design and “cr7” design advanced to the second round. Petsafe is a device that alerts pet owners when their pet is escaping through an open door. A devise that is worn under athletes’ uniforms, cr7 measures body temperature and skin moisture to help avoid heat stroke. For reaching the second round, each team received a TI technology package with supplies, including a TI-84 Plus CE Python graphing calculator, a TI-Innovator™ Hub microcontroller, and various electronic components, to build and program a functional model of their solution.