Posted on 07/19/21
This past year has been a difficult time as we have tried to transition back to school after the lockdown. It has been amazing to see how the students have continued to persevere and even pursue extra engineering programs! The Center for Initiatives in Jewish Education (CIJE) is a non-profit organization that works with over 200 Jewish schools in 18 states across America, impacting over 45,000 students annually. I would like to give a special recognition to our local CIJE winners.
This year’s annual CIJE Middle School Robotics Tournament challenged student teams to build a robot that could navigate the playing field and stack risers in designated goals. Extra points were awarded for combining stacks and rows of the same color risers. Our Baltimore students did a great job with their robots and in our CIJE tournament where their scores were compared to other students across the country. TI’s robotics team of Sruly Jakobovits and Chaim Robinson won the tournament with the highest individual team score! You can read more about the robotics tournament at Baltimore Jewish Life | CIJE Robotics at Torah Institute (Photo Essay).
For the first time, CIJE hosted a Drone Olympics event in Baltimore. Sixth grade students from TA learned about drones and were challenged to program a drone to fly through an obstacle course. They had to launch their drone, navigate through hoops and hurdles, turn corners, and land on the launch pad. TA’s team including Akiva Berliant, Moshe Lerner, Ariel Rosenblum, and Pinchus Shulman won the day as the first to successfully make it through the course!
Once again, our high school engineering classes concluded with student teams presenting their capstone projects at our Innovation Day. Students worked throughout the year to solve a real-world problem, using the engineering skills they had learned to build a prototype. At Innovation Day, students from across the country presented their projects using a website and video pitch. It was very exciting watching the Awards Ceremony and seeing a number of Maryland winners! You can see more about Innovation Day at https://www.thecije.org/live.
The Safety Scanner - Melvin J. Berman Hebrew Academy
Penina Sloan, Danit Snow, Daniel Ferziger, & Erez Epstein
The Safety Scanner detects whether a mask is being worn properly when entering public places. It utilizes a sophisticated neural network to determine what portion of the face is covered and communicates the information to a LED display.
https://thesafetyscanner.wixsite.com/website
"Pen"couragement - Bais Yaakov of Baltimore, The Eva Winer High School
Sara Lowenthal, Divi Green, & Leeba Knopf
“Pen”couragement is a pen equipped with a pulse sensor that detects the stress level of the students. As the heart rate rises, a motivating message will appear on an OLED screen on the side of the pen.
https://sites.google.com/view/pencouragement
"Pen"couragement - Bais Yaakov of Baltimore, The Eva Winer High School
Sara Lowenthal, Divi Green, & Leeba Knopf
“Pen”couragement is a pen equipped with a pulse sensor that detects the stress level of the students. As the heart rate rises, a motivating message will appear on an OLED screen on the side of the pen.
https://sites.google.com/view/pencouragement
the Kiddie Light - Bais Yaakov of Baltimore, The Eva Winer High School
Shira Alyeshmerni, Esther Nadler, & Racheli Horowitz
Our project is designed to help both parents and children with bedtime. It teaches children to stay in their bed for the duration of the night, and it helps parents get full, productive nights of sleep.
https://sites.google.com/view/thekiddielight
Auto Whiteboard Cleaner - Bais Yaakov of Baltimore, The Eva Winer High School
Ayala Attar, Bracha Pleeter, & Rikki Berry
We have created a product that cleans your dirty whiteboard in order to prevent distraction for teachers and students. We used a sponge rod, a stepper motor, a rack and pinion mechanism, an Arduino board, and a button.
https://sites.google.com/view/autowhiteboardcleaner
Lastly, special congratulations to Maya Herman of Bais Yaakov for winning the alliantgroup Blue Heart Fund STEM Scholarship! Maya, who recently graduated 12th grade, has shown great interest in engineering and chose to be in the CIJE engineering class for three years in a row. She was able to use her knowledge of engineering from the classroom to win the prestigious scholarship. The alliantgroup scholarship will help Maya pursue higher education in a STEM field and become an innovator of tomorrow!
Congratulations, again, to all the students who joined CIJE this year to learn about engineering! Their success is a tribute to the tremendous achievements of their dedicated teachers.