Edison Student Seeks Votes To Win NASA Competition

EDISON, NJ — A students from JP Stevens High School in Edison is seeking votes from her community to win a NASA contest.

Senior Manvi Sinvhal’s team has advanced to the final round of the National 2020 NASA TI Codes Contest. The competition challenged teams to either improve a process or create a product for the International Space Station (ISS).

Sinvhal’s team created a free-flying sanitation robot, Germaphobe, that uses UV lights to keep the ISS clean, leaving astronauts with more time for their research.

The Germaphobe is made of PVC frame and plexiglass siding. Texas Instruments provided the students with electrical parts, including the Innovator Hub, breadboard, and TI- Graphing Calculator which they coded.

Although the team has advanced to the finals, the winner is chosen through public vote.

The prize for the winning team includes TI Rovers and TI Innovator Hubs.

If travelling conditions improve, team members get the opportunity to visit the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Sinvhal is paired with four high school seniors from New York, Pennsylvania, and Chicago. The students got to know each other while applying to an engineering summer program at MIT. When the program was cancelled due to coronavirus, they found out about the contest online and jumped at the opportunity.

"Our biggest advantages is that we have a lot of different talents and perspectives to contribute to a truly unique and innovative product," said Sinvhal.

The team met virtually using Zoom, Google Hangouts, and Google Docs to design and build the Germaphobe.

While research, brainstorming and planning was easy, the group faced hurdles in the building process.

“Building the robot was challenging with all of us in different locations. But we divided the various aspects of the project among us – like coding, building and videography,” said Sinvhal.

The team then faced a huge obstacle when the Innovator Hub blew out days before submission. "It took a lot of work and creativity, but in the end, we managed,” she said.

If they win, the team plans to donate the TI Rovers and Innovator Hubs to their schools. “By doing so, we hope to establish hands-on STEM learning opportunities for students,” Sinvhal told Patch.

Time to vote for Sinvhal’s project is fast running out. Voting is open now and last through 11:59 a.m. CT, Sep. 14.

Click on this link to vote for Sinvhal’s robot: https://gleam.io/g/GmXli/12b141

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