Awarded for ingenuity — NHS students receive prize money

A trio of Newcastle High School students have proven their computer science prowess by winning a $1,000 prize in the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow competition.

Senior Archer Ohnstad and sophomores Ethan Parsons and Anika Oleson are students in Nicholas Peterson’s computer science class. They comprise one of three groups working on a project for this class. Their peers are working on a wind turbine simulator and glasses that translate different languages for the wearer. Ohnstad, Parsons and Oleson’s contest-winning project is building a durable and affordable computer for developing nations.

“This is a project that Archer, our senior, started his sophomore year,” Peterson said.

Ohnstad’s inspiration came from an outside-of-school PC building hobby.

“I built my own personal computer,” he said. “I was like, ‘Hey, we could build a third-world computer that is super cheap and can do anything that a phone or a computer can do.’”

One of the main themes of the contest is “advancing accessibility through STEM.” Peterson saw promise in the project, especially since it nicely aligns with this theme.

“I’m super excited to see that Archer’s progressed this project this far,” he said. “I keep trying to push the group to build a fully successful prototype that can be accessible to Windows and be used for communication because communication is the ultimate goal.”

Peterson said that Parsons and Oleson have been “tremendous help” to the effort due, in part, to their technological knowledge. Ohnstad also credited Parsons for taking on the responsibility of putting what the group is trying to accomplish into a more technical write-up, and he praised Oleson for serving as the group’s “anchor,” who is there to save the others when they face especially tricky problems.

Ohnstad himself received kudos from his teacher for his leadership skills.

“Archer, having the most experience, definitely took the leadership role, but he is also willing to back off and give full control to Anika and Ethan, which is incredible,” Peterson said. “I foresee him going into some engineering teaching position.”

During the first semester of the school year, the students tackled the planning stage and built a prototype, which they dubbed “G.” Currently, they are using their prize winnings to purchase the materials necessary to fully realize their design.

“As you can see, our prototype is very rough. The new one will have a bigger screen and should give us more accessibility to do more,” Ohnstad said.

The prize money could not have come at a better time. According to Peterson, computer science is already a notoriously expensive field, and the single-board computer the students are using, known as a Raspberry Pi, has steeply increased in cost. Peterson said that two years ago, he could purchase one for about $50, but they now cost two to three times as much.

Receiving these funds will also enable the group to improve their device’s durability and functionality. Despite these increasing costs, Peterson said the students’ design would still yield a device much more affordable than the standard personal computer.

“The computers would be used in a landscape that’s not very forgiving,” Peterson said. “We want to make them as indestructible as possible but also functional.”

The students have been communicating with the consumer electronics accessories company OtterBox, best known for its exceptionally durable cell phone cases.

“I contacted customer service,” Parsons said. “They sent us further up the line, and we ended up getting in contact with the manager of engineering and testing for the company, who then got us in contact with the design and engineering department.”

The group recently had a phone call with engineers from the company and learned more about how OtterBox can make such indestructible phone cases.

“They gave us some ideas for different types of materials to use and which materials we need to waterproof our device,” Parsons said.

The trio is also working toward fitting the device with solar panels so that it can be charged and used in the absence of a dependable power grid.

The next big test of the viability of their project will be the upcoming science fair, which will take place Jan. 28. The students hope to do well in this competition, but they also have grander ambitions.

“We hope to get in contact with Samsung again,” Ohnstad said, “because they suggested reaching back out to them in the future.”

Their ultimate goal, the students said, would be to patent their computer and sell it.

“That would be big,” Parsons said. “That would be like, wow!”