May 2, 2022 3 min read

Four Monessen High School students will be presenting an invention at a national conference next month.

Senior Aidan Bittinger, juniors Kyla Lugo and Jailynn Crews and freshman Rick Hazuka are students in Matthew Strine’s Business and Bots Class. The quartet makes up one of seven teams from throughout the country that has been tabbed to go to FutureFest in San Jose, Calif., May 20 to make a pitch for their creation.

The four created a keyboard overlay for a current Monessen student who is legally blind. Letters on the keyboard are raised so the student is able to feel what she’s pressing. Orange filament was placed on the keyboard, as the student can make out contrast, which enables her to see the letters.

Strine did say there is a bit more work to be done before the group is California-bound.

“The student has been using the keyboard overlay that they made for her,” Strine said. “She can see the letters and she can touch them and feel them. The next step is whenever she touches the key, it will be able to (audibly) read that letter. They’re still working on that part.”

The invention was originally pitched virtually at an event in April called Demo Day. The northeast portion, in which the Monessen students participated, included 10 schools from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Connecticut.

“They all participated in Demo Day, which was a culminating event for the work they were doing,” Strine said. “They won what was called the Need Finder Award. Of the 10 groups that presented that night, the judges felt they worked best with their community partner, a sophomore at our school.”

Strine added that Team Bextsy, as the foursome is called, won $500 for receiving the Need Finder Award at Demo Day. As well as working closest with a community partner, the Need Finder Award goes to the group that creates something necessary for that partner.

“They listened to what she had to say and made something that she needs,” Strine said.

The Business and Bots class involves students running a business to acquire ample funding for the robotics portion of the class. That business has included making items such as key chains and T-shirts bearing the paw logo of the school’s mascot, the greyhound.

A part of the class that just began this year is Project Invent, which involves the keyboard overlay project.

The group will leave May 19 and return May 23. He set up a GoFundMe page to help offset expenses that would be incurred on the trip, which resulted in $1,000 being donated.

“Getting a chance to fly across the country and experience what else is out there, it’s pretty amazing,” Strine said about the students.