Two Lakota East-Butler Tech Engineering Teams Named State Finalists in National Competition

Lakota East seniors in the Butler Tech Engineering program are two of only five teams from Ohio to be named State Finalists (300 nationally) in the 13th annual Samsung Solve for Tomorrow competition. For their efforts, the East engineering department will receive a $5,000 Samsung prize package and both teams will advance to Phase Two of the competition next month.

Senior Engineering Capstone students, including Ian Balfour, Alec Brown, Sean Castillo, Aidan Ethier, Johannes Fernholz and Will Price advanced with a design proposal for an educational autonomous delivery robot for schools. Abigail Theobald advanced due to her work on a prehabilitation injury prevention program for athletes. Theobald has already begun putting her plan into motion with the Lakota East Athletic Department and presented at the winter sports “Meet the Team” night last month.

“This project is the launching point based upon years of research about injury prevention strategies and the effects of overtraining,” said Theobald. “Through the creation of an app, which will provide injury prevention knowledge and exercise programs for athletes to use, and the implementation of injury prevention strategies at Lakota East, injury risk can start to be reduced.” 

These state finalist teams will now be asked to submit an activity plan and video detailing how their proposed STEM project will address the identified community issue. In January, 50 state winners will advance to the next phase of the competition and receive $20,000 in technology and supplies, as well as a video kit to help document their project in action.

Solve for Tomorrow is a national competition that challenges U.S. public school students in grades 6-12 to explore the role science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) can play in solving some of the biggest issues in their local communities. The competition engages students in active, hands-on learning that can be applied to real-world problems – making STEM more tangible and showcasing its value beyond the classroom.

The full list of 300 State Finalists can be found on Samsung’s website.