After a late night in the town celebrating with two friends, I decided it was time to head on home. So I walked towards the bust stop a little worried that I might already have missed the last bus. It was a Sunday and the buses were few and far between. When I arrived there were still a few people waiting, so I thought perhaps there might be one last bus. After waiting a while I called a friend and asked her to look up a schedule online. Sure enough we had all missed the last bus by about 10 minutes.

One person insisted another bus was to come so we waited. An hour and a half after arriving at the stop I had had enough. Some people were getting mad as it seemed the only way home at that point was to call a taxi but most of them only had enough for bus fare. There was a mother with two beautiful twin girls who was particularly sad.

I decided it was too late and too dangerous to let everyone get home on their own. So, I called a taxi company and asked them to send out a mini-bus. I told everyone that if they wanted they could all ride with me and I’d make sure they all got home, no matter where they lived. So, about six of us piled in the mini-bus when it arrived.

I was one of the first to reach my destination so I reached into my pocket and pulled enough money to be more than certain that everyone got home. I told the driver to keep what was left over.   So, everyone got home safely and at a reasonable hour, the driver got a big tip, and I went to bed content.

Students at Bullock Creek High School in Midland, Michigan found an unusual way to raise money for their robotics team.

Every year, 28 students on the Blitz Creek team take part in a national robotics competition, where students are challenged to create a robot that can perform certain tasks. They design robots, and write the programs that run them.

But building robots isn’t cheap. Maxton Herst joined the team in the ninth grade, and later he became the captain of the robotics team. By accident, Maxton Herst saw a video about a toilet paper pyramid. Maxton realized that it was possible to build a record-setting pyramid, and then sell the toilet paper to get money for their program. All the team members agreed to try his idea.

Blitz Creek has been planning the pyramid since last May. One challenge was calculating (计算) how many rolls of paper were needed. The answer turned out to be 27,434.

In late December, team members gave up part of their winter holiday to build the pyramid. The pyramid was so big that they had to build it from the inside before backing out and filling in the areas where they had been standing. It took about 16 hours, with many people working, which is about 61 centimeters taller than the current (当前的) Guinness World Record.

The pyramid opened for viewing on January 4, 2020. Sadly, because the pyramid was in the school’s front hall, it could only stay for three days. With all the excitement caused by the pyramid, it turned out to be fairly easy to sell the toilet paper. Many supporters did help. Families and teachers bought half of the paper. A large company bought the rest. The team made about ＄10,000 from the event, which will help pay for its activities.

Maxton talks about the success of his crazy idea. “If you’ve got an idea, and you know that this idea is good, push it,” he says. “Don’t stop.”

A 14-year-old Girl Made an APP for Alzheimer’s (阿尔茨海默症) Patients

Emma is a 14-year-old student. Her grandma has Alzheimer’s Disease which has caused her to forget things that were very important to her. Emma’s family stay connected by sending her photos through her iPad, in hopes that she would remember them for as long as possible. Her caregiver would give her the iPad and she would look at the photos. Sometimes she remembers the people in the photos, sometimes she doesn’t, because recognizing people is becoming increasingly difficult. She also needs her caregiver to help her remember to do everyday tasks such as taking medicine or making phone calls. Her illness is making it difficult for her to stay connected with others.

As time went by, Emma started to wonder, is there a simple mobile app that could help her grandmother and other Alzheimer’s patients remember events, stay connected with friends and family, and recognize people around them?

Emma’s family hunted widely for such an app. But they were disappointed because in fact, the app they wanted didn’t exist (存在). There are many tools in the market but none of them help patients improve their daily lives. They also found that there were very few apps developed for the elderly, due to the stereotype (刻板印象) that old people cannot use technology. They are the under-served people. Right at around that time, Emma started learning how to code in Swift, an iOS programming (编程) language. So she took the matter into her own hands and developed the app Timeless.

Emma spent two years working on the app that uses AI-powered facial recognition to help Alzheimer’s patients identify people in their life. Patients take a photo of a person and the app helps them identify who that is, whether it is a loved one or a caregiver. The app also works as a daily planner and helps patients to remember events and stay connected to their social support system.

Emma is now working with an international team of developers to improve the app. With a design expert and a software developer, she believes she can make Timeless a convenient and user-friendly app for Alzheimer’s patients.