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Tappan Zee students present AI recycling cart and bus RFID plan; SoBots robotics team returns from Worlds with awards
Summary
Students from Tappan Zee High School showcased a prototype AI recycling cart and a pilot RFID-based bus-tracking system and reported robotics team SoBots (team 6911) successes and finances at the May 13 board meeting.
Students at Tappan Zee High School presented several STEM projects to the South Orangetown Board of Education on May 13, demonstrating an AI-assisted recycling cart, a bus-efficiency plan using AI routing and RFID tracking, and updates from the SoBots robotics team after competing at the FIRST World Championship in Houston.
Joey Won, a senior, described a prototype cart that uses a neural network to classify trash. He told the board the team's original model reached about 95% accuracy but ran slowly on a small computer; after applying quantization, pruning and distillation techniques the students said they improved a downscaled model from roughly 71% back to about 94% while maintaining acceptable inference time.
"We were thinking of a way that maybe could allow the recycled materials to be actually separated and go where they should go instead of ending up in the landfill," Joey said, describing the motivation behind the Project Invent submission.
Calum Tidjane, a senior and member of a multi-student team, summarized "Way 2 Go," a multi-year project to reduce bus mileage and emissions by signing up riders on specific days, computing dynamic routes with AI and using RFID tags to confirm pickups and improve real-time tracking. Board presenters said the plan is to pilot the system; the team has worked on it for about two years.
Representatives from the SoBots robotics team (team 6911) described outreach, technical and financial achievements. Esther Huang, the team's finance lead, reported that the team began the season with $3,742, raised $62,358 during the year and received $21,500 in in-kind donations. The team spent $9,282 on materials, $1,400 on registration for off-season events and raised $5,114 from its school-run Crescendo Cafe. In a two-week fundraising push before its first championship in Texas, the team raised $20,629.
SoBots reported multiple awards: the team won six awards in the season, including the Engineering Inspiration Award at the Finger Lakes Regional (qualifying them for Worlds), the Judges Award at the Hudson Valley Regional, the Creativity Award at Tech Valley Regional and regional winners honors at the Finger Lakes event. Mentors and volunteers were recognized as well; the board noted mentor awards including the Woody Flowers Award.
Board members and community commenters praised the students. Shawna O'Flynn, speaking as a parent, thanked the board for supporting the program and noted the team keeps all students involved and helps them learn from failures; a parent cited an incident in which a volunteer drove overnight to deliver a critical part so the team could compete.
The board recessed briefly following the student presentations to allow certificate distribution and a group photo for students who completed emergency-medical-training certification. Administrators noted the presentations as examples of the district's extracurricular STEM activities and outreach work in the community.
