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| Students take a break from Innovation Day at the American Dream Mall. (CIJE) |
by Gavi Nitka, SSLI '28
Today, the Center for Initiatives in Jewish Education (CIJE) hosted its annual Innovation Day, and Schechter students traveled to New Jersey to exhibit their original inventions. CIJE describes Innovation Day as “a culmination of a year of coursework in the CIJE-Tech high school engineering curriculum. Students are tasked with conceptualizing, creating, and engineering their own inventions. At Innovation Day, these students present their outstanding accomplishments. The capstone projects presented on Innovation Day are the culmination of a year of work guided by the CIJE curriculum.”
Engineering students from across the grades took a bus to the American Dream Mall for the competition. At Innovation Day, engineers could choose to either do a pitch room–style presentation (with judges) or present a science fair–style tri-fold display for judges to review.Science Department Chair Mr. Wilen was one of the judges. He said, “We really wanted to see things that were original and stood out—something that seemed innovative and was just set apart from everything else.”
Schechter had two award-winning projects: H2ORB and FetchGPS.
Ephraim Berman, co-inventor of the H2ORB, said, “It is a firefighting device that goes into burning buildings before first responders—as a first-first responder. It would mitigate and minimize the damage to the building, as well as to the firefighters.” When asked why he thinks they won, he described the device: “There is one hose that goes into a water tank, and that water goes into a top tank to exit through a fan-like opening. This would create an orb-like shape of water, and the front would have a more precise, controlled way of shooting the water.”
Schechter had two award-winning projects: H2ORB and FetchGPS.
Ephraim Berman, co-inventor of the H2ORB, said, “It is a firefighting device that goes into burning buildings before first responders—as a first-first responder. It would mitigate and minimize the damage to the building, as well as to the firefighters.” When asked why he thinks they won, he described the device: “There is one hose that goes into a water tank, and that water goes into a top tank to exit through a fan-like opening. This would create an orb-like shape of water, and the front would have a more precise, controlled way of shooting the water.”
Shayna Barak, co-inventor of the H2ORB, had a more specific response. “We won the ‘Best Pitch for Healthcare’ category. I am honestly really proud of our website, slideshow, and videos. It’s quite a unique idea, and it would capture a lot of people's attention.” She continued, “It checked all the boxes. It exists in a way that nothing else does.”
Ben Gorman, co-inventor of FetchGPS, said, “FetchGPS is a dog collar with many features including GPS monitoring, Bluetooth, heart rate monitoring, and temperature sensing. All of these things are shown on an iOS app. You can always check your dog’s status—it’s sort of like an Apple Watch for a dog.”
Ben Gorman, co-inventor of FetchGPS, said, “FetchGPS is a dog collar with many features including GPS monitoring, Bluetooth, heart rate monitoring, and temperature sensing. All of these things are shown on an iOS app. You can always check your dog’s status—it’s sort of like an Apple Watch for a dog.”
Gilad Nitzan, co-inventor of the FetchGPS, explained how hard it was to build the device and how much time he and Ben had to invest. Gilad and Ben, like many other engineers, had to “build it twice, take it apart, and start all over again.”
Other products exhibited by Schechter included the GateMate baby gate, the D.A.B. (Driver Awareness Belt), VisionAssist (a navigation assistant for the visually impaired), MediCall (a nurse-patient communication device), and The Automatic Tourniquet.
Brian Melzer, who worked with Penina Charry on MediCall, explained that their project was designed to help older people in nursing homes instantly send a signal to their nurses. Melzer said, “Our product had four different colors. Each has its own signal. Yellow means they need assistance, and red means a full-on emergency. There was also a blue button to cancel the alert. This would be so helpful for people who don’t want to send a full help signal but could use assistance.”
Other products exhibited by Schechter included the GateMate baby gate, the D.A.B. (Driver Awareness Belt), VisionAssist (a navigation assistant for the visually impaired), MediCall (a nurse-patient communication device), and The Automatic Tourniquet.
Brian Melzer, who worked with Penina Charry on MediCall, explained that their project was designed to help older people in nursing homes instantly send a signal to their nurses. Melzer said, “Our product had four different colors. Each has its own signal. Yellow means they need assistance, and red means a full-on emergency. There was also a blue button to cancel the alert. This would be so helpful for people who don’t want to send a full help signal but could use assistance.”
Charry added, “Our product was better than other competitors because the user can actually choose what type of help-call is sent. It’s mobile, and all the buttons are located in one spot.”
Each product was based on an Arduino microcontroller and compatible parts. Elan Golan, from GateMate, said, “Our automatic baby gate closes behind a parent, stopping their child or pet from falling down the stairs. We used a regular door and added Arduinos, wires, servo motors, and had to code the whole thing.”
Engineering students had an overall successful day at Innovation Day. Several students said how excited they were for Innovation Day 2026.
Gavi Nitka is a writer for Paw Print Now and has been published on the site since January 2025. Gavi is currently a freshman at Schechter School of Long Island and can be reached at the following email address: gnitka28@schechterli.org
Each product was based on an Arduino microcontroller and compatible parts. Elan Golan, from GateMate, said, “Our automatic baby gate closes behind a parent, stopping their child or pet from falling down the stairs. We used a regular door and added Arduinos, wires, servo motors, and had to code the whole thing.”
Engineering students had an overall successful day at Innovation Day. Several students said how excited they were for Innovation Day 2026.
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