I would like to interrupt the FRC build season for a moment with a note about our little brothers and sisters in the
FLL competition...
As part of their competition, FLL teams must research a topic (this year it is Food Safety) and develop an innovative solution to a problem in that area. Teams who believe they have very good ideas can then submit their innovative solution idea to compete for the new
Global Innovation Award. I would like to draw your attention to one idea in particular submitted by one of the 4 teams that the Gaelhawks (Team 230) mentor... the
“Smart Sticker”.
http://fllinnovationaward.firstlegol.../smart_sticker
The “Smart Sticker” idea is an indicator sticker on the outside of refrigerated food packaging (like eggs for example) that indicates with a green sticker if the food product has been kept at the correct temperature during its transportation and storage. If the temperature of the food container reaches a certain unacceptable point for a specified amount of time, the sticker will irreversibly turn red to indicate possible contamination. If the food is placed back into the refrigerated storage facility, the sticker will NOT turn back to green, but will remain red indicating possible contamination. This allows the consumer to be assured that the products they buy are safe and continues to protect them after they have brought the product home as well.
As many of you here already know (since this is a very FIRSTy group here
), this is an amazing opportunity for these young students and we believe our team has a great idea that is worth patenting and pursuing (and so do a couple of local companies who have shown a possible interest). Before their submission, they applied for a provisional patent as well.
Part of the selection of semi-finalists is done by popular vote. At the end of the voting period, the top 10 in the voting along with 10 others selected by a panel of judges based on their idea will move on to the semi-finals.
You can vote once a day, every day, until March 1, 2012 5:00 PM [Please for the sake of all teams, do not use any means of automated voting. 
This would not be graciously professional and will get that team disqualified from the voting. Thanks.]
Please take some time and look at these pages and the ideas from these kids who (hopefully) will soon be joining the ranks of FRC and FTC teams around the world.
Encourage them to continue their interest in Science by supporting them with your votes. 
Thanks for your attention... you may now return to your other build season activities.
But altering register values via bitwise operations in nested ternary commands is so much fun! - artdutra04 [more] 
FLL Global Innovation Award - Get the Vote Out!
30-01-2012, 12:22
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