STEM Student of the Week
From: ECN Magazine - 11/13/2015
By: Kasey Panetta

Annie Torre is a homeschooler involved with FIRST.

ECN: Tell me about what you're working on currently.  

Annie: This entire year I have been working on the Insta-Braille with my
team, The Braille Boys & Annie. We currently have a prototype of our
invention at the Center for the Visually Impaired in Atlanta, GA. Our team
has a provisional patent on our invention and are working on a full utility
patent now.

ECN: Tell me about the FIRST LEGO League challenge you were just involved in?

Annie: We decided we wanted to teach people Braille. Our invention, the
Insta-Braille, allows students to learn Braille independently. My team won
$5,000 as part of the FIRST LEGO League Global Innovation Award. We plan to
use this money to buy a 3D printer to make more prototypes of the
Insta-Braille.

ECN: What's the most challenging part about your field?

Annie: Finding companies who will help us produce the Insta-Braille and get
it into the hands of children who are visually impaired.

ECN: How has your interest in STEM allowed you to be involved in something
you otherwise wouldn't have done?

Annie: Because of the Braille Boys & Annie, I have been exposed to STEM in
ways I would have never guessed. I've learned about 3D printed, circuit
boards, microcontrollers, injection molding, and lots of other cool STEM
concepts.

Read the entire article at:
http://www.ecnmag.com/blog/2015/11/born-be-engineer

Links:
Insta-Braille - FIRST LEGO League
http://fllinnovation.firstlegoleague.org/insta-braille

The Insta-Braille Project (with video 3:03)
http://instabraille.com