As a young dog, I have observed many things in my somewhat short but still eventful lifetime. I’ve been many places and met many humans and dogs alike. This level of youth innovation and talent, however, is something I have not seen before!
A young group of students in grades 5-9 from Bayview Glen School’s FIRST LEGO League Robotics team, called Ctrl-Z, recently competed and was crowned champion at the FIRST® Championship in St. Louis, Missouri! Their innovative solution was the Pinder Pet Finder, a smart collar that reunites lost dogs with their families.
Young Minds in Action
FIRST LEGO League is a competition where students between the ages of 9-14 compete in robotics and STEM through research, technology and hands-on challenges. This year’s competition theme was ANIMAL ALLIES. Teams were tasked with finding a way to improve the interaction between humans and animals.
Team Ctrl-Z from Bayview Glen used this opportunity to create a bluetooth enabled smart collar. The collar would be able to reunite lost pets with their owner. It was named the Pinder Pet Finder. The team built a prototype for a collar that is able to sense through bluetooth when your pet has wandered too far from you. The collar would then play a recording stating that this pet is lost to alert passersby and it would also project the owner’s phone number on the ground surrounding the lost pet.
Bark ‘n Yapp is proud to have been a sponsor and supporter of Ctrl-Z’s project. Other supporters include the Toronto Humane Society, the Organization for the Rescue of Animals, Y2 Entrepreneurship Labs, and more.
Here is a demonstration video from Ctrl-Z: Ctrl-Z’s Pinder Pet Finder
Ctrl-Z pitched their Pinder Pet Finder invention to a panel of judges at the Ontario Innovation Celebration, which was hosted by FIRST Robotics Canada and ventureLAB. They ended up winning the Problem Identification Award!
A Historic Win!
Every year, FLL has a worldwide championship competition where the best robotics teams from around the world compete for the Champion’s Award. Ctrl-Z made a historic win for Canada, being only the second Canadian school to ever win the Champion’s Award!
It’s amazing to see how these young students are tackling such a real and pressing issue for us dogs and our owners. At such young ages, Ctrl-Z was able to develop a fully-functioning prototype for a smart collar!
Congratulations again to the students on Ctrl-Z for their historic win for Canada and for their hard work on the Pinder Pet Finder!
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