Brainy Smart Terahertz (THz) Detector

http://fllinnovationaward.firstlegoleague.org/brainy-smart-terahertz-thz-detector

MY NOTE: I just saw this, it's another sign, of how wide spread interest in THz is becoming. (http://halfadozennerds.webs.com/ourresearch.htm)

Team Name: 

The Brainy Bunch

Team Number: 

3186

Team Location: 

Great Falls  Virginia  22066

United States

Team Description: 

We are a FLL team of six eighth graders from Kilmer Middle School in Vienna, Virginia who are passionate about science, technology and exploring new ideas to help our community. We want to make a difference even if it is small one in this world! We learned a lot from scientists around the world and enjoyed meeting people during our community outreach efforts. We worked with elementary school children, girl scouts, dairy farm owners and grocery stores to create food safety and FLL/JFLL awareness. We discovered how enjoyable it is to learn from others. The Brainy Bunch members’ countries of ethnicity includes India, China, Germany, Poland, France, Ireland and Korea, which resulted in an innovative global solution that applies to the U.S. and other countries. We hope our solution helps to prevent future suffering and deaths related to food-borne illnesses. Our motto is, “Raising food safety awareness is the first step toward prevention of food-borne illnesses all around the world."

Brief Submission Description: 

Rise in Global food trade trend comes with its share of challenges! Our solution targets to improve the current Global food safety systems to ensure delivery of safe food to consumers worldwide. The Terahertz (THz) detector uses THz Spectroscopy to detect contaminants along the entire food supply chain. The device uses non-ionizing pulses that are safe and non-destructive. The non-contact sensor picks up transmitted signals from the food sample and creates a unique data to rapidly identify presence of bacteria, anthrax spores, pesticides, drugs, adulterants, metals, and aflatoxins. This technology is being utilized by Homeland security to detect explosives and the Pharmaceutical industry for quality control. Currently, scientists are developing a LED that is able to emit THz frequencies at the desired rate of picosecond bursts. This will eliminate the bulk of the cost further, lowering it to around $500 for the prototype. Once mass produced, the cost is likely drop to less than $100!