Medway High School Students Participate in Sixth Annual Innovation Showcase

Medway High School students, educators and community members gathered on April 30 for the sixth annual Innovation Showcase. (Photo Courtesy Medway Public Schools)

MEDWAY — Medway High School students recently showcased their internships, capstone projects and work from clubs, classes and organizations at the sixth annual Innovation Showcase on April 30.

The Innovation Showcase provides students with the opportunity to present the culmination of their year-long academic and career-focused endeavors to families, educators, student peers, industry partners and the broader community.

For the first time in the event’s history, the entire Medway High School student body attended the Innovation Showcase. Students visited the gymnasium in waves to learn what their peers achieved throughout the school year. 

Attendees learned about student-designed solutions to real-world problems, prototypes developed through engineering coursework and insights gained from professional internships in education, health care, banking, law enforcement and other fields.

Senior capstone presentations included “Advanced Micro Plastic Filter,” “Firebreak Innovation Restoring Ecosystems,” “Pack Pal: Quick, Clean Organized” and “Tone-In App: Word for Word, You Will be Heard.”

Jon Jasinski, a capstone, physics and engineering teacher, helps to coordinate the Innovation Showcase. The event is designed to teach students to distill a year of research and work into one presentation.

“In a lot of cases, for the capstone group, they work on one project for one whole year,” said Jasinski. “This is the final culmination of the project, when students get to say, ‘Here’s our journey that we’ve gone through. Here’s all the stuff that we got out of it,’ and an ulterior motive for the event is that we can also ask students, ‘How do you talk about the journey? How do you communicate that journey to somebody else?’ Those are the skills that we hope students get from the Showcase.”

A panel of 10 judges, including industry professionals and State Rep. Jeffrey Roy, evaluated students’ projects based on the problem, plan, prototype and overall presentation.

Based on the judges’ scores, four awards were presented to capstone projects. The winning projects included: 

• Impact Award: “Advanced Micro Plastic Filter” (Prince Patel, Aadhavan Sivakumar and Connor Levasseaur)
• Persistence Award: “Firebreak Innovation Restoring Ecosystems” (Winter Lafferty)
• Innovation Award: Innovation Award: “Tone In App: Word for Word, You Will be Heard” (Macy Healy, Bella Webb and Bridget Tonelli)
• Communication Award: “Tone In App: Word for Word, You Will be Heard”

Innovation Career Pathways Program Coordinator Carly Brousseau works alongside Jasinski to organize the Innovation Showcase.

“For some students, their internships have really confirmed that they want to be a physical therapist or they want to work in education or nursing,” said Brousseau. “Others, they’ve just really grown their professional skills to transfer to other professions, but it’s really important for them to get those meaningful, hands-on career connection experiences.”

Senior Abbey Walker interned at Connections Physical Therapy and presented her experience working in a health care setting.

“I think this event is so important. If I had just done the internship and stopped there, I don’t think I would have absorbed what I learned and experienced as part of it,” said Abbey. “I think this is a great reflection of the school. To have students go out and work hands on in the community is a great opportunity, not only for the internship but the showcase itself.”

For other students, the Innovation Showcase is an opportunity to showcase class projects.

Sophomore Cooper Bartha and freshman James Cotsford presented a project from their Advanced Robotics class. They designed and built a robot that assists elderly and disabled people by picking up objects low to the ground. The robot has an arm that mimics the human arm, complete with an elbow and shoulder to increase it’s range of mobility. Cooper and James will continue working on the robot to add a second arm and collection system for the objects it retrieves.

Sophomore Geetika Seethammagari presented her Science Fair project, “Decoding the Gut-Heart Connection: Computational Analysis of Imidazole Propionate Interaction with Cage Protein Retinol Binding Protein and Lipocalin in Atherosclerosis.” 

Geetika has presented her research at the Innovation Showcase since seventh grade, as students who win the middle and high school Science Fair have the ability to present their work.

“I think it’s really important for students to have these opportunities,” said Geetika. “I’m proud my school offers this to young students. Having opportunities like the Science Fair allows me to do something I’m interested in and also help something in society.”

“Our students gain invaluable experience through the internships, capstone projects and classes they participate in,” said Principal John Murray. “The Innovation Showcase allows students to share the skills and lessons they have learned throughout the year, as well as discover what their peers have been working on. It is a wonderful celebration of students’ accomplishments, and I look forward to this event each year.”

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Senior Abbey Walker presented about her experience as an intern at Connections Physical Therapy. (Photo Courtesy Medway Public Schools)

Sophomore Cooper Bartha, left, and freshman James Cotsford showcased the robot they created for their Advanced Robotics class. (Photo Courtesy Medway Public Schools)

Sophomore Geetika Seethammagari gave a presentation on her project, “Decoding the Gut-Heart Connection,” which won the Science Fair. (Photo Courtesy Medway Public Schools)