The Flying Monkeys, a Girl Scout team in Ames, Iowa, has been selected as a recipient of a $20,000 grant to patent their prosthetic hand device invention, which has helped a three year old girl to write.
As Global Innovation Award winners, the girls will participate in a private awards ceremony on June 16, 2011 at the United States Patent and trademark Office (USPTO) in Alexandria, Va.
The scout team has won the inaugural FIRST LEGO League (FLL) Global Innovation Award, presented by the X PRIZE Foundation. They won against 179 submissions from 16 countries with BOB-1, a prosthetic hand device that can help people with limb abnormalities to hold, grip, stabilize or secure items.
According to officials the competition among the FLL teams was to leverage bio-engineering and arrive at new ways to repair injuries, overcome genetic predispositions, and maximize the body’s potential in order to help people lead normal and healthier lives.
The girls in the scout team were inspired by their teammate, who has a limb difference. The prototype they created has enabled a three-year-old girl Georgia, who was born without fingers on one hand, to hold a pencil.
To create the prosthetic limb, the girl scouts of The Flying Monkeys researched limb differences and decided to help Danielle after learning about her story on www.sammysfriends.org.
To guide her on how to use the BOB-1 they sent Danielle an instructional video besides sending a video of their teammate playing the violin to show Danielle that she too could live without limits.
The Flying Monkeys is one among more than 200 Girl Scout robotics teams that have been formed as part of Girl Scouts in the U.S. as an initiative to make children focus on science, technology, engineering and math.
Kate Pickle, Girl Scouts of Greater Iowa’s (GSUSA) National Program Manager, STEM said, “Girl Scouts are showing the world that girls are ready to take their place as scientific leaders.”
It was revealed that the public voted upon the award submissions and later judged by an expert panel to determine the most patentable ideas. Around 400,000 public votes were cast by nearly one million people from 145 countries who visited the award Web site.
TMCnet reported that the 20th Season of the original FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) game which is a culmination of regional FIRST competitions held across the world will be held between April 28th and 30th, 2011 in the Edward Jones Dome, St. Louis.
Shamila Janakiraman is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Shamila’s articles, please visit her columnist page.Edited by
Rich Steeves
