InTech Collegiate Academy students Henry Trinh, Skyler Da Silva, Kaleb Chandler competed in national Samsung STEM innovation contest after winning the state-level contest.
Logan — Henry Trinh, Skyler Da Silva, Kaleb Chandler began with an idea.
Instead of painting road lines with thermoplastic paint, which can be more harmful for the environment, these high school students at InTech Collegiate Academy had another plan. The high school students found an eco-friendly way to paint road lines — for better reflection.
“The best alternative would be polyurethane paint, and we put glass beads on.”
Their idea won the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow’s state-level contest and went on to competed nationally after beating out other Utah schools in the contest back in January. They were judged not only on the idea, but how they document and present the process, using a few provided Samsung devices.
Henry learned how to impact the community in a positive way.
“We have a better understanding of road safety in general.”
Months ago their teacher, Loren Salvesen, sent out an email about the contest to see if any students were interested. She was impressed with their initiative.
“These three basically wrote up a whole project without any input, so – pretty amazing,” she said.
It’s even garnered some unexpected fame, including a call from Kaleb’s 1st grade teacher and being recognized in public:
“Are you this guy that was on the news for this competition? I’m like, ya that’s me.”
Skyler says it feels good to prove the small school can compete and show their talent.
“Being able to represent Cache Valley and Utah as a whole is really an honor.”
Earlier this month, 10 finalists were chosen for the contest and will compete in a final month of voting. The trio recently learned they did not advance, but say they plan to share their findings with Logan City as a suggestion.