On April 26th students Lena Conde Araujo, Johann Carranza, and River Dowdy won $100,000 for the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow competition. They traveled to New York to present their pitch, the Pathfinder.

The Pathfinder is a system that can detect gunshots that uses LED lights to direct students to the nearest exit and safest exit.

“In addition to providing a way to aid staff and students in evacuation, we wanted Pathfinder to be a way to control crowds as well,” said sophomore Lena Conde Araujo.

After presenting to the judges and going through different stages of the competition, the team was selected as the winners of the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow competition and won $100,000 with $50,000 going towards Samsung technology and the other $50,000 going towards the engineering classrooms.

“The pitch members were 1 of 10 groups that performed their pitch of Pathfinder in front of judges, and then answered any questions the judges asked,” said sophomore Michael Robbins. “The judges liked their pitch and answers and announced the team as national winners the next day.”

This is not the end for this team, they’re just getting started, the team has many plans for the Pathfinder in the future.

“This is definitely not the end,” said Conde Araujo. “We’ve continued talking to professionals, such as Samsung’s Specialist in HR Security and Emergency Management, and have plans to improve Pathfinder before we consider implementing it in schools.”