Two ELCO students earn top finishes in national SCHOTT Innovation Challenge

Two students from Eastern Lebanon County High School were honored Thursday for placement in the national SCHOTT Innovation Challenge at SCHOTT Pharma in South Lebanon Township.

After presenting their innovation ideas, the students were offered a tour of SCHOTT’s facilities.

ELCO senior Logan Young took second place in the contest and sophomore Seyitan Adewale took third, with participants submitting video presentations reviewed by a panel of SCHOTT employee judges. Students were not required to participate in the challenge, ELCO chemistry teacher James Thomas explained, but this is the second consecutive year ELCO has had two winners.

“These kids are just knocking it out of the park, and I’m glad they took the opportunity to push themselves into this new venture,” said Thomas. “When we do this partnership, all I do is present the idea: this is a challenge, this is what it is, but I don’t require it and I certainly don’t make it a grade.”

Winners, SCHOTT representative Kurt Johnson explained, were selected from nearly 30 submissions received from across the United States. Johnson noted that SCHOTT Pharma brought in students from ELCO, the Lebanon County Career and Technology Center, Cocalico School District, and other districts leading up to the challenge.

The Lebanon facility is the only SCHOTT Pharma location in the U.S., although it’s one of 16 locations globally. SCHOTT Pharma is a subsidiary of SCHOTT, which has production and sales facilities in over 30 countries.

SCHOTT, established in 1884 in Germany, also manufactures other glass products ranging from consumer electronics to architectural glass, and all seven SCHOTT locations in the U.S. offered tours to students beforehand.

Johnson showed the video presentations submitted by both students, and gave them an opportunity to answer questions from those in attendance.

Logan, accompanied Thursday by parents Rachel and Kyle Young (also a SCHOTT Pharma IT location manager), submitted an idea for a “Screwstep Cabinet Elevator,” an adjustable cabinet mounting system that would allow users to lower cabinets for easier access.

His presentation outlined the engineering work that would go into the idea’s implementation, and described screws as being a useful mounting tool due to ability to hold large amounts of weight. He said the idea is based on screw elevators he has encountered while 3D printing, and would apply this concept to allow seniors, people with disabilities, and shorter people access cabinets without help.

Logan, who plans to attend Penn State Berks for engineering, said he is the tallest person in his family, and he often helps his parents get items from hard-to-reach cabinets and shelves.

“I figured that if I could design something to alleviate that issue for other people as well, then I would be able to solve a lot of people’s problems, and just make life a little bit easier for those who can’t reach high places,” said Logan.

Thomas said he taught Logan two years earlier at the same time Thomas was looking for a 3D printer as a gift for his son and, later, the school added a 3D printer to the classroom. He said Logan was quick to answer his questions about 3D printing and helped him navigate issues with the printer.

“If I couldn’t fix it, I knew there was someone I could go to,” said Thomas, describing an instance where he had trouble getting a file to print correctly and Logan asked for the file and had it fixed by the next day. “That was something that I really appreciated. … His ability to critically think, to just enjoy solving problems, I loved having him in class. I’m so happy that he decided to take on this challenge because it really showcases everything that you are as a student and a person.”

Seyitan, joined Thursday by father Olutayo Adewale, entered the challenge with an idea for a sustainable, refillable lip gloss tube made from lightweight borosilicate glass. Her idea, she explained in her video presentation, would both be more sustainable than plastic single-use packaging and limit user exposure to microplastics.

“At first it was kind of hard to decide on what I wanted to do, but I just thought of something that I use every day,” said Seyitan, referencing studies showing high usage of lip balm by women, risks from makeup packaging, and high waste from makeup products. “That’s really sustainable if we can find a way to reduce that plastic. And also a health concern is the microplastics, and that it’s on your lips when you eat and can get into your system, so I thought of a way to reduce that.”

She suggested that customized or branded lip gloss cases could serve as an incentive for users to refill rather than re-buy, and users could either buy a glass tube with a refill or send the container back to the manufacturer to be refilled.

Thomas, who is Seyitan’s teacher this year, vouched for her work ethic. After he presented the challenge to students, he said, she came back the next day with her presentation fully ready to go.

“That right there speaks to your work ethic, and that is what I appreciate about you as a student,” said Thomas. “You just follow through, and that is something that makes my life so much more enjoyable when it comes to teaching. You fully involve yourself in whatever task there is. … I will say your commitment to yourself is awesome.”

“I’m glad both of you guys trusted in yourselves to do this, because that is the key, that’s critical,” Thomas told Seyitan and Logan. “You guys will continue to thrive going forward, just keep following that self-motivation.”

Johnson praised both students for the time and research they put into the challenge, as well as their confidence presenting.

Logan and Seyitan were rewarded with $500 and $250 gift cards, respectively, on Thursday. The challenge’s first-place winner, a student at John F. Kennedy Preparatory School in Somers, New York, received his award Feb. 24.

After a break for photos, the students, their families, and school staff had the chance to tour SCHOTT’s manufacturing facility and proprietary technology. There, employees oversee mostly-automated machines that take glass from imported rods to custom-shaped vials, scanning for quality along the way.

The glass is heated and molded into shape, with machines capable of adjusting to meet a customer’s specifications. Quality, Schneider explained, is SCHOTT’s top priority as they custom-make medical vials. Products that don’t pass the quality scan are removed, with Schneider explaining that the Lebanon plant sends rejects to a blacktop maker so they do not go to waste.

“Really, this Innovation Challenge is about promoting manufacturing locally,” said Johnson. “What we do here matters, the product that we make matters. We want everybody to know, especially students that are up and coming, that working in a manufacturing environment is a viable option.”