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Nouvel Catholic Central HS wins $30,000 in scholarships and STEM grants in A.H. Nickless Innovation Award
UNIVERSITY CENTER, MICH., April 22, 2024 – Over the weekend, five teams from Nouvel Catholic Central High School competed against 15 other teams from the Great Lakes Bay Region in the 11th annual A.H. Nickless Innovation Award competition at Saginaw Valley State University’s Alan W. Ott Auditorium. The teams presented the output of months of research and development in an annual competition that promotes innovation and creative thinking among high school students in the Great Lakes Bay Region.
Nouvel Catholic Central High School senior Riley Mattheis and junior Sydney Leslie were awarded first place for their project, Find My Firefighter.
Team Leader Riley Mattheis and teammate Sydney Leslie, coached by teacher Clara Wagner, created a GPS tracking device that gives precise location of a firefighter so they can be found faster to reduce serious injuries.
“Firefighters and first responders are often in life-threatening situations to save others from disaster,” the team members wrote in their final project report, describing the impetus for their project. “They can become trapped in rubble, debris, lost in a desolate area, disoriented and therefore go missing with no way to be located, resulting in death.”The Nickless Innovation Award includes a $5,000 scholarship per student team member and a $20,000 STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education grant for the school, as well as a plaque.
In addition to receiving the scholarships, grant and plaque, the first-place team also will get to display the competition’s 3D-printed traveling trophy at their school for the next year. The team members’ names will be engraved on the trophy permanently.
Presented by the Nickless Family Charitable Foundation, the A.H. Nickless Innovation Award is an annual competition for high school students ages 13 to 18 in Bay, Midland, Saginaw and Tuscola counties. Its goal is to inspire passion for STEM subjects and challenge students to work in teams to think innovatively and develop solutions to problems impacting the world. Topics typically include – but are not limited to – issues related to alternative energy, healthcare, science, technology or life sciences.
Learn more about the A.H. Nickless Innovation Award competition and participants here.