It was made mostly of wood and repurposed parts. Going in, I had a prototype, but it was not manufacturing-ready at all. I spent my time during Accelerate really focusing on the construction and appearance of Perch. What are some of the key product improvements that you made during Accelerate? When the 2020 school year began, I knew that I needed new support to re-focus on Perch, and the Accelerate program came at the perfect time! 5. We didn’t do a great job communicating as a team, and eventually people lost interest. For our first year after Demo Day, we were not formally collaborating on Perch, and our disorganization took a toll on the project. Then getting funded made me even more excited. I had a lot of fun discussing the project with everyone, and seeing what the other teams had come up with. When we got there, everyone at Demo Day was super interested. We had spent the year developing our product with our partner, but I still wasn’t sure what other people would think of it. Just attending Demo Day really motivated me to move forward. After pitching Perch at Demo Day, what motivated you to enroll in the Accelerate program? This really interested us because it was an issue that none of us had even thought about before, so we decided to focus on that.Ĥ. She told us that she held the bags with her mouth since she needed her hands to drive her wheelchair. One issue that really intrigued us was her struggle with taking groceries in from her car. Dee was instantly very friendly and happy to discuss her daily life with us. After discovering the local basketball team, we reached out to see if we could attend a practice game and chat with them. As we were brainstorming ideas to inspire our invention project, we narrowed our search to helping out people who use wheelchairs. We met our community partner, Dee, at a practice event for a local wheelchair basketball team. Tell us a little bit about your community partner.

It was out of my comfort zone, but I decided to go for it anyways-and that’s how it all started. But I was also hesitant because of how large-scale it sounded.

I’ve always enjoyed making stuff and applying new engineering skills, so I was instantly intrigued. My teacher asked the class if anyone would be interested in joining a Project Invent team. My journey began in my sophomore drafting class. How did your Project Invent journey begin? Why did you decide to join a Project Invent team?

Inventor student