Special to The Citizen

A team of student inventors from Whitewater High School — one of only 16 high schools nationwide selected to receive a Lemelson-MIT InvenTeams grant in the 2008-2009 school year — recently completed its solar dehydrator and dehumidifier.

This solar dehydrator and dehumidifier will dehydrate food (such as tomatoes) and, by directing the trapped and now saturated air into a dehumidifier, capture the water.

This proposed invention provides an efficient way to preserve food by solar dehydration while also providing a clean drinkable water source to be used by developing countries that lack clean water sources and viable food during off-seasons.

The Whitewater High School InvenTeam will travel to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Mass., to exhibit and demonstrate its invention at the InvenTeams Showcase during EurekaFest, a multi-day celebration of the inventive spirit taking place on June 25-27.

During the InvenTeams Showcase at EurekaFest, the Whitewater High School InvenTeam, led by Carolyn Smith, engineering and technology teacher, will join a community of inventors at the MIT Stata Center on June 25.

In addition to discussing its research and design processes and showcasing its invention, the Whitewater High School InvenTeam will also gather feedback for advancing its invention.

On June 27, the InvenTeams will participate in an engineering wind-power design challenge at the Museum of Science, Boston.

The Whitewater High School InvenTeam will join more than 200 high school students from across the country to devise, construct, and test a wind turbine in order to lift an aluminum garbage can to the three-story ceiling of the museum.

Students will be housed in the MIT dormitories during EurekaFest.

Several other teachers at Whitewater High School were very instrumental in helping the team reach its final goals: Dr. Wansley, cosponsor and physics teacher; Damien Leimbach, science teacher; Sean Bennett, English teacher; and Christine Brand, English teacher.

In addition to the school’s faculty, David Wolf, senior manufacturing engineer, and Glenn Melton, senior plastics engineer at Hoshizaki in Peachtree City helped guide the Whitewater High School InvenTeam through this yearlong process.

The Whitewater High School team also received valuable help from the Peachtree City Chapter of Toastmasters that is based out of the Clayton State University campus at Westpark.

EurekaFest is presented by the Lemelson-MIT Program, a non-profit organization at MIT that inspires youth to pursue creative lives and careers through invention.

EurekaFest empowers a legacy of inventors through activities that honor role models and encourage creativity and problem solving. The festivities will also provide the Whitewater High School InvenTeam with the opportunity to meet fellow student inventors from across the country, past and present Lemelson-MIT Program Award winners, in addition to MIT faculty, alumni and staff, and leaders in science and engineering communities.

“The InvenTeam initiative provides students with a unique hands-on learning experience and empowers young people to creatively address complex real-world problems,” states Leigh Estabrooks, the Lemelson-MIT Program’s invention education officer. “We strive to instill confidence in students and ignite passion for science, technology, engineering, and math, by exposing them, first-hand, to the real-life applications of these fields.”

Showcases and presentations are free and open to the public. More information about Lemelson-MIT InvenTeams and a detailed schedule of EurekaFest is available online at http://web.mit.edu/invent/eurekafest.html.

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