From left, Ashley Mitchell, Kendyl Brown, Mia Brandon and Brinna Porat are in the running for the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow national contest with their idea to use geofoam to fill potholes.
ANDY BELL-BALTACI | DAILY JOURNAL
A group of four Center Grove High School seniors is working on an innovative way to solve a top concern of Indiana drivers: potholes.
Ashley Mitchell, Kendyl Brown, Mia Brandon and Brinna Porat represent the fourth consecutive group from Center Grove High School in the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow contest. The nationwide competition challenges students to come up with innovative projects to benefit their communities in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM.
The students are among State Finalists from five Indiana schools. They have a chance to ultimately be named National Winners and earn Center Grove High School $100,000 for future STEM projects. The three National Winners will present their product to a congressional panel in Washington, D.C. this spring.
The four seniors want to use expanded polystyrene geofoam, or EPS geofoam, to fill potholes and cracks in roads. The material, used in construction projects including building bridges and interstates, is lightweight and can expand to fill gaps. The project would be a widely-useful way to recycle the foam, making it environmentally sustainable, Mitchell said.
“We started discussing icy roads and after the winter, what happens. It creates cracked roads and a bunch of potholes. A lot of students have older cars and if an older car hits a pothole, it’s not as forgiving,” she said.
Potholes are typically filled with either hot mix during the warm months or cold asphalt patches during the cold months, according to the Indianapolis Department of Public Works. The material currently used to fill potholes doesn’t often hold up over time, Brown said.
“Pothole solutions break down after a year or two. In my neighborhood, the tar sticks and cracks and looks gross. We want to fill the potholes and roads to keep them from cracking after a year,” Brown said.
The geofoam is good for quick installation, meaning roads won’t have to be closed for weeks in order for potholes and cracks in the road to be repaired. The foam, which combines metal with recycled rubber, is not slippery and can withstand extreme weather, Brandon said.
One of the key aspects of the geofoam is environmental sustainability, Porat said.
“It helps recycle EPS, which isn’t biodegradable,” she said. “The manufacturing of it is environmentally friendly, but there’s a lot of excess of it and we wanted to find a way to use it with excess scrap metal to put a coat on top of it to protect it and reflect the sun. It serves as a thermal insulator and is good with temperature changes.”
Center Grove schools is one of 300 State Finalists across the United States, with other Indiana projects including one from Mississinewa High School, one from South Adams Middle School, one from Bloomington High School South and two from Carmel High School. For reaching this stage, the students received a $2,500 prize package including Samsung products and classroom resources so they can complete their activity plan submission, according to the contest’s website.
In order to advance to the next stages of the competition, the students will need to make prototypes for the project and get their hands on some of the geofoam itself. They will also need to develop a presentation, including a video about the project and interviews with industry professionals. The students are already reaching out to members of the Indiana Department of Transportation to discuss the potential benefits of their idea, Porat said.
The list of 300 State Finalists will be narrowed down to one winner from each state, which will each receive a $12,000 prize package with Samsung products and classroom resources. From those 50 schools, 10 will be named National Finalists, and will earn a trip to New York City to present their ideas to a panel of judges in the spring. National Finalist schools each get a $50,000 prize package, while the three schools named National Winners will each get a $100,000 prize package, according to the contest’s website.
During the past three years, all three groups from Center Grove High School have represented Indiana as State Winners, with two of the three groups advancing to the National Finalists stage, said Andrea Teevan, who teaches the student groups in her Project Lead the Way biomedical science class.
Last year’s project, which reached the National Finalist stage, involved a device that tracked eye movement and beeped when it detected a distracted driver.
“With this competition, I hope the students get the opportunity to shine beyond the normal school day and set expectations beyond what they thought was possible,” Teevan said.
