自从科赫创新挑战赛(Koch Innovation Challenge)在威奇托州立大学(Wichita State University)开始以来，这是该校项目的代表队第二次有资格进入全国比赛的决赛。
作为今年科赫创新挑战赛的总冠军，压力团队(Edie Reese, Cierra O’尼尔和Jedidiah Borchard)赢得了一场自费旅行，参加2019年在佛罗里达州坦帕市举行的CEO全球会议和球场比赛。
在与其他79支球队的比赛中，“压力之队”以16强之一进入半决赛，然后以六强之一进入决赛。
The team’s invention, a liquid measuring tool for the visually impaired that clips onto the side of a vessel (like a cup or cooking pot), is a mechanical alternative to devices that currently exist in the marketplace, but uses magnets instead of batteries to alert users when liquid levels are near the top.
“它更便宜，使用起来很简单，而且非常简单，”Reese说。“你只要把它拉起来，水位就会让里面上升，直到发出咔哒声，这是一个听觉提示，所以他们可以听到他们的杯子是否满了，而不是用手指去感觉。”
通过咨询当地的专业人士对视障人士的需求，该团队得以在最终比赛前改进原型，在经过多轮反复试验后，融入了改进功能的新设计功能。
“I think the most impactful thing I got out of the class that we took for this competition is ‘fail early, fail often,’ because we definitely went through a lot of iterations of our prototype, and it was building upon that feedback that really helped us in the end,” said O’Neill.
虽然球队在决赛中结束了比赛，但这是威奇托州立大学项目的一个重要里程碑，也是“压力下的球队”的另一个成就。
阅读更多关于压力下的团队和今年的科赫创新挑战。
