April 6, 2022
Camas, WA
One year ago, FIRST Robotics Competition Team Mean Machine 2471—a group made up of students from Camas, Hockinson, and Washougal school districts in Washington state—used their design, machining, programming, and business skills to create a device for assisting people with injuries or other physical disabilities. Their creation, The Power Pivot™, is a portable motorized disk that can assist caregivers transferring persons with limited mobility between seating positions. The Power Pivot™ provides rotation to move the patient so it is much easier and safer to use than existing non-motorized transfer disks that require awkward twisting and can result in patient or caregiver injury. You can learn more at powerpivotdisk.com.
As the team continued to modify and improve their creation, they submitted their idea to the International Technology and Engineering Educators Association’s REACH challenge. Competing against a variety of teams from middle school to college age, the Power Pivot was selected as the #1 national winner in February and awarded $1,000 to put towards their project.
In December of 2021, Discovery High School and Team Mean Machine entered their Power Pivot into the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow competition, where students worldwide tackle a chosen issue using science, technology, engineering, and mathematics skills. Later that month, the Power Pivot was announced as a state winner and received a prize of $6,500.
To compete at a national level, the robotics students worked to create the following video to share their incredible product. They collaborated with Discovery High School’s Film Production class, using the school’s high quality cameras and equipment to film the video.
Samsung announced the national finalists on March 17th. The Power Pivot is currently among the top 10 finalists out of over 2,500 schools nationwide, an achievement that has earned the team $50,000. Later in April, Samsung will be announcing three national winners from among the finalists, and the grand total in prizes for each winning team will be raised to $100,000.
An additional $10,000 prize is given to the team that takes home the Community Choice Award. This award is given based on a public vote, so the Power Pivot team needs your help. Vote for Discovery High School at the link attached. Anyone can vote once daily until April 23.
Vote for Discovery High School and the Power Pivot here: samsung.com/us/solvefortomorrow
Team Mean Machine will be using their winnings to fund further pursuits of the Power Pivot project. The remainder will go towards supporting the Team Mean Machine robotics and the Discovery High School makerspace, where Power Pivots are manufactured by students.
Photos by Taryn Cavill and Haley Crowell
The high school team is currently assembling Power Pivots™ and making them available for those who can benefit from its capabilities. Power Pivots are built for each individual upon request. They are designed to be affordable with any profit directed to support STEM education in the community.
FRC Team 2471 is composed of students from Camas, Washougal, and Hockinson school districts in Washington state. The team competes in annual FIRST Robotics Competitions where they use design, machining, programming, and business skills to build robots to compete in a series of robot challenges that change from year to year. Team Members have opportunities to learn new skills and work together as a team while they are encouraged to seek innovative solutions to solve real world problems, preparing them for any professional STEM or business fields. Students show dedication to the FIRST Robotics principles of safety in their work, innovation in creation, excellence in design and gracious professionalism throughout their community. Find more information at team2471.org/
FIRST® is a robotics community that prepares young people for the future through a suite of inclusive, team-based robotics programs for grades PreK-12 that can be facilitated in both school or other structured programs. An international non-profit organization founded by accomplished inventor Dean Kamen in 1989, FIRST has a proven impact on STEM learning, interest, and skill-building well beyond high school. Boosted by a global support system of mentors, coaches, volunteers, alumni, and sponsors that include over 200 of the Fortune 500 companies, teams operate under a signature set of FIRST Core Values to conduct research, fundraise, design, and build robots, then compete and celebrate at local, regional, and international events. Students are eligible for more than $80 million in college scholarships through FIRST. Learn more at firstinspires.org/