Saratoga High School seniors who collaborated with their peers in Taiwan on a pedal-powered project presented their green bike recently at a forum in New Taipei City.
Naomi Hsieh, Owen Liang and Eric Norris partnered with students from Jhangshu Creative Technical High School to present a collaborative project at the New Taipei City Multi-Action Green International Carbon Neutral (MAGIC) Youth Forum held Oct. 23-27. Their Green Bike, or G-Bike, is a power-generating bicycle that features a corresponding app tracking the amount of carbon the user saves by biking instead of driving.
Starting in spring, the three Saratoga students met virtually for five months with their peers in Taiwan to brainstorm and collaborate on an environmentally friendly project that would contribute to a carbon-neutral future.
“We spent extensive time brainstorming about trash sorters, beach cleaners and even 360-degree videos to show local culture,” Eric Norris said in a statement. “While all of our ideas fulfilled the (project requirements), the G-Bike had one unique aspect: user motivation.”
Besides tracking carbon emissions saved, the G-Bike contains an interactive map with pinned cultural locations within Taipei to teach users about the region.
“I was in awe of the collaborative design process these students developed to plan, create and execute this project with students located in a different part of the world,” said Bill W. Sanderson, superintendent of the Los Gatos-Saratoga Union High School District. “To each work on components of the project over a five-month period and then physically put it together under the tight time constraints right before the conference was an incredible feat.”
Sanderson served as the keynote speaker for the forum, and Saratoga High School teachers Audrey Warmuth and Matt Welander gave a presentation on how the school is carrying out initiatives to reduce carbon emissions.
The district also participated in this conference in 2019, when two Los Gatos High School students represented the U.S. and partnered with students from Taiwan. Then- sophomore Juliette Bolvin and then- senior Liam McHugh collaborated virtually with their international teammates until they met at the conference. The students designed a jacket heated by a solar panel to help homeless people combat hypothermia and lined it with LED lights to help wearers stay safe at night.