Ligonier Valley High School students to compete for $6K prize in statewide PennDOT challenge

Ligonier Valley juniors Matthew Sutton and Callen McPherson will compete for a $6,000 prize against high schoolers statewide through PennDOT’s annual innovation challenge.

The challenge, held for the past nine years, invites high school students to address a current transportation issue. Participants present potential solutions to the problem before a panel of PennDOT judges, ranging from design engineers to administrative staff.

Each of PennDOT’s 12 districts selects the top five ideas submitted by students in their region, and the teams present their projects to judges. The winners from each regional matchup go on to compete at the state level.

District 12 — encompassing Westmoreland, Washington, Greene and Fayette counties — had 29 teams submit ideas this year, said Andrew Stacy, a PennDOT community relations coordinator. They included students from Ligonier Valley, Norwin and Central Greene school districts.

This year, students were asked to use AI to improve work zone safety for crews and drivers.

Sutton and McPherson’s concept, called WorkZoneGuard, would install traffic monitoring cameras at worksites. With the help of artificial intelligence, the cameras would detect unsafe driving behavior and warn work zone crews. Workers would wear upgraded safety vests, which could administer vibration signals and flashing LED lights if dangerous driving were detected.

The Ligonier Valley students didn’t just tell the judges about their concept, said Brian Blasko, a teacher in the district. Sutton and McPherson, students at the Eastern Westmoreland Career and Technology Center, designed a mock-up of the technology.

“What really helped Matt and Callen get over the finish line was they created an actual model of their pitch,” said Blasko, who encourages his eleventh grade government studies students to participate in the challenge.

That initiative also caught the judges’ attention, Stacy said.

“I think what set this team apart, from my understanding, was their ability to answer follow-up questions,” he said. “They brought a mock-up of what the piece of equipment would look like, which was neat and something that I think some of the other teams did not do.”

Ligonier Valley has participated in the challenge since 2023.

Sutton and McPherson are the first team from the district to move forward to the state competition, Blasko said. Next month, students will present their ideas to Pennsylvania Transportation Secretary Mike Carroll.

The winning team receives $6,000 to be split evenly among its members, Stacy said.

“It’s pretty neat to see the judges’ reaction to the concepts (students) have,” he said. “Some of them, they’re like, ‘Wow, we could probably do this.’ ”

But Blasko finds equal value in completing the challenge.

“I try to find as many authentic learning opportunities for the kids as possible,” he said. “I also want the kids to be able to demonstrate skills you can’t really measure in a classroom.”