Fox Chapel Area High School students earn top honors at STEM contest at Heinz Field

A team of Fox Chapel Area High School freshmen have a plan for the future of Heinz Field.

It doesn’t involve adding seats to the rotundas of the North Shore stadium. Nor does it follow scouting analysis of college players for the upcoming NFL draft.

Instead, students Arnim Kuchhal, Varad Sant, Etash Jhanji and Rohit Velankar spent about two months researching and developing plans on how to make the home of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Pitt Panther football more energy efficient and draw from renewable resources.

Named “The Mean Greenes” after the legendary Steeler and NFL Hall of Famer “Mean” Joe Greene, the team’s project involved solar panels, hydropower modules and piezoelectric flooring.

“It was definitely fun,” Arnim said about working on the project. “We were meeting outside of school to kind of get together and do some research and figure out how to solve the problem. It was fun making the scale model. We designed it digitally and then made the pieces and put them together. It was definitely a fun project.”

Arnim said his classmates are all Steelers fans, but he roots for Tampa Bay quarterback Tom Brady.

Piezoelectric flooring involves special tiles usually made of crystals to convert mechanical energy into electrical energy. They build up a charge when stress is applied, such as a stepping on them.

The proposed hydropower modules pull energy from the slow moving water of the Allegheny River using technology from Waterotor Energy Technologies, an Ontario, Canada-based company.

The devices would sit at the bottom of the river collecting energy and not interfere with boat traffic, Varad said.

Their idea was good enough to take first place at the third annual Powering Pittsburgh contest held in November at Heinz Field.

“Going to this gigantic stadium, it made it feel that much more important,” Rohit said. “I think in some ways it was a self-confidence booster, and in some ways made us a little bit nervous.”

Fox Chapel was among 18 teams from schools in Allegheny, Washington and Beaver counties to compete.

“The event was developed and hosted by the Steelers under our Steelers STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) partnership platform,” Steelers spokesman Burt Lauten said. “In this case, we partnered with Shell Polymers to give an opportunity for students to connect with our organization in a different way off the field. STEM education programs are important and vital to the region’s growth and for our partners to invest in the future.”

It was unclear if Steelers or Heinz Field officials would consider the Fox Chapel team’s plans.

Attempts to reach the judges of the contest were unsuccessful.

All four students live in O’Hara and have known each other since elementary school. Science and math are their favorite subjects.

The team’s main goal was to raise awareness of “green,” renewable energy sources — and not just win a trophy.

“I don’t know if they will actually be putting (our idea) into practice,” Rohit said. “I certainly hope they will be at least giving some thought to it. … This is to inspire thinking into the newer generations. It would be cool if they did implement it, but it’s not important whether they do. It’s important that they can see that there is a newer generation that is thinking and is going to lead us forward.”

Arnim believes the incorporation of the hydropower modules and the way the team presented itself made their project stand out.

“I think Waterotor was definitely one of the things that we were able to find that was kind of obscure,” he said. “I think we really presented our project as a team, and we answered the questions from the judges smoothly and fluidly. That sort of set us apart.”

Cost of the students’ proposal ranged from $2 million to $5 million.

The students said Waterotor would pay itself back in about seven years. The solar panels would do the same in about five to 10 years.

The panels would be spread out over a 700,000-square-foot space. Heinz Field is about 1.49 million square feet.

The team received a $1,500 donation to further STEM education at the high school, and was recognized during a Steelers game on Dec. 5.

Teacher Lisa Gibson was the team’s sponsor.

“I could not be prouder of the efforts put forth by these young men,” Gibson said. “Their ideas were unique, innovative, and as demonstrated in their presentation, cost effective. They thoroughly considered every angle of their project and handled the competition with confidence and poise.

“I am excited to support them in future endeavors and can’t wait to see what they accomplish next.”