A group of four Norwin seniors won the PennDOT Innovations Challenge on March 20. The students challenge was to develop a cost effective solution to help increase motorist awareness for road and seatbelt safety. The team was mentored by Mr. Thomas Harskowitch and team members were seniors Parker Baird, Isabella DeFlitch, Elana Gomez, and Isabella Ulery.
Their team was called, “Buckle Up, PA,” a seat belt safety campaign that includes a mobile app with seatbelt trackers, social media presence, and safety lessons.
“We proposed a solution called ‘Buckle Up, PA,’ which involves an app (by the same name), and a small, Bluetooth device called a ‘Buckle Buddy’ that uses GPS and Bluetooth to track your seatbelt usage when you’re buckled in,” said team member Elana Gomez. “The Device connects to the app, Anne through the app, you can earn points, which you can use to get money off your car insurance, or earn gift cards for businesses in Pennsylvania.”
The PennDot Challenge is a yearly event where select students are chosen to come up with a solution to a real-world issue, usually on the topic of transportation. It is the eighth year for students to create a creative solution to transportation problems. This year’s challenge was to come up with a solution to people not using their seatbelts.
“ Not only did ‘Buckle Up, PA’ get to create and collaborate on this idea, but they also got to listen to everyone else’s ideas.
“My favorite part of the challenge was getting to collaborate with my peers, and hearing everyone’s ideas in Uniontown,” said Gomez. “And I enjoyed getting to present in front of the judges—it was a really great learning experience for everyone in my team.”
Gomez and her team all loved this project, and they get to move on to presenting to the PennDot Secretary and Panel of Judges in April. Lots of hard-work and effort was put into their presentation.
In order to prepare for the challenge, we had to research and brainstorm a solution,” said Isabella Ulery. “We sat and worked for hours, and once we came up with all of our ideas, we had to write a short paper briefing our solution. Once we were notified that we were selected to move on to district, we had to create a presentation that we would present in front of a board of PennDot members.”
The win did not come easy for the team. To succeed, they had to put in numerous hours of hard work. In previous years, student teams seized the opportunity in the PennDot challenge. In 2024, all teams placed in the finals and one team moved on to state finals. The students were inspired by their teacher.
“My AP statistics teacher, Mr. Harskowitch, inspired my class to participate,” said Ulery.
Mr. Harskowitch led the team in their efforts. Through his leadership, the team was able to advance to states.
“The next step of the competition is states at the capitol in Harrisburg, where we will compete against the other district winners from across the state,” said Ulery.
The team will travel to compete on a larger scale at states. The winning team will be provided a total award of $6,000 from the Associated Pennsylvania Constructors organization, the American Council of Engineering Companies of PA, the Mid- Atlantic Section of the Institute of Transportation Engineers, and the Intelligent Transportation Society of Pennsylvania.
