On Tuesday, June 3, Cherokee High School’s class of 2025 Project Lead the Way students presented their Senior Capstone projects to current PLTW students, faculty, family, and friends. 

The Project Lead The Way program is a four year program here at Cherokee High School. Students apply to be a part of this prestigious program in their 8th grade year, and, if accepted, are enrolled in Intro To Engineering and Design for their freshman year. This is followed by Civil Engineering and Architecture during their sophomore year, and Principles of Engineering and Design during their Junior Year. 

Engineering Design and Development is the final course in this program, where students take initiative to develop a solution to a problem of their choosing. With limited time, resources, and budget, the prototypes they were able to design and produce are nothing short of incredible. Mentored by Mr. Knauss, these teams worked all year long to make their vision come to life. Check out these projects below, and congratulations to PLTW’s class of 2025!

“Urban Gardening” by Noah Gruber (’25), Bhavesh Umesh (’25), Akhilesh Pulavarti (’25)

Right now, urban gardens in cities do not hold up in the long run. This is an important issue, as urban gardens provide numerous economic and mental health benefits to city inhabitants. Their product aims to fix this by creating a low maintenance garden that can be set up in apartments. Their system allows for plants to grow safely without risk of UV poisoning, due to the roof overtop of the garden. Their product also comes equipped with a sensor that tells the user when the water needs to be cycled, in order to ensure the plants have the most stable growing conditions. 

“Canine Cardio Campaign” by Kayley Rosengard (’25) and Grace Fescoe (’25)

Dogs inside tight spaces, most commonly apartments, are typically not engaged enough to maintain their energetic lifestyle. This duo attempted to solve this problem by creating a device designed to entertain all types of dogs. The top rotates while holding a variety of different dog toys, all securely attached to ensure the dogs’ safety. Their device also comes equipped with a tennis ball launcher that blends seamlessly into their design. The box at the bottom is filled with sand, to ensure that the dogs’ roughhousing will not knock it over.

“Guitar Compass” by Benjamin Brandies (’25), Judd Holt (’25), Josh Failbus (’25)

Many blind or visually impaired individuals have an interest in music, and current technologies do not allow them to express their musical interest. This group aimed to tackle that- specifically when it comes to the guitar. The group created a device that can provide auditory feedback to the user. It can play a requested chord, listen to the user’s rendition of that chord to provide feedback, and help the user when it comes to playing. 

“Aware Apparel” by Megan Niglio (’25) and Anisha Kuppili (’25)

Syncope, otherwise known as fainting, is something that happens to roughly one-third of the population over their lifetime, with many instances occurring in hospital visits. There are not many technologies that can predict such fainting spells, so their design aims to fill that gap. The duo created a shirt with sensors that can detect when the user is at risk of a fainting spell. Through intricate coding and testing, their product is successfully able to predict an oncoming fainting spell. The sensors are sewn into the shirt, which is skin tight so the sensors are close to the skin- to ensure maximum effectiveness. Their product is sure to help users prone to fainting go about their daily lives, as the app the team designed will give the wearer advanced notice thanks to the incredible shirt.

“The Battery Underovercharger” by Tyler Jiang (’25), Eric Lu (’25), and Joey Mahallati (’25)

Often, users face many issues when it comes to the lifetime of their device battery. This can be due to users overcharging their devices. This is common practice, as many users typically charge their phones overnight, with no ideal way of unplugging it when it is fully charged. This group wanted to fix this, and they did. They created a device that can limit the battery from overcharging the user’s electronics, and even improved upon their original prototype by making it waterproof and accessible for all different user ports.

“Custom Mouse” by Sean Kaup (’25), Jayel DeTorres (’25), Logan Banks (’25)

Did you know that wrist problems can occur from prolonged computer use? This group aimed to fix that, and they specifically focused on better supporting the gaming community, with their primary focus being the E-Sports team here at Cherokee. They designed and prototyped many different mouse shells, and their product aims to create a custom mouse tailored to the individual user. While they were unable to complete widespread testing due to time constraints that did not allow for them to create tailored mice for a large group of individuals, they did create one prototype tailored to a specific user. The results were spectacular, with the user reporting a significant decrease in wrist pain. They were able to prototype several different shells and test those on a small group of people, and it was a reported success.

“Pet Door Security”  by Caden Crosson(’25), Steven Killian (’25), Jack Mogell (’25)

Many users, especially in urban areas, often have concerns about safety when it comes to their doggy doors. Users worry about animals escaping, intruders entering their homes, and drafts racking up their electricity expenses. This team created a doggy door equipped with a sensor that is able to detect the dog, and thus unlock the door to allow the dog to enter or exit. This would ensure that the door remains shut and locked when not in use but still remain effective as a doggy door.