Help one of our students win a contest

We just received this from one of our parents…

Dear Friends and Family,

As many of you know, our kids have had a blast participating on a LEGO Robotics team through the FIRST LEGO League over the past three years.

This year, the theme was BODY FORWARD and we were challenged to research a bio medical topic. We chose to research the Hepatitis C Virus (HCV), a deadly disease that impacts over 195 million people world-wide and will eventually kill more people than AIDS. HCV attacks the liver- the clearing house for toxins in your body- and has no known cure, nor a vaccine. HCV is a silent epidemic that left untreated, scars and shuts down the liver. The current reactive treatments for HCV involve an expensive 24-28 week drug routine with difficult side-effects. iBrick proposed a new solution- a preventative treatment– to fight HCV, using a transdermal monoclonal antibody patch.

Here’s the really exciting part!  We currently have a provisional patent for our patch with the The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Also, we submitted our patch idea in a LEGO Robotics contest sponsored by The X Prize Foundation, a leading nonprofit organization sponsoring competitions to inspire scientific discovery. The winner of

the contest receives $20,000 towards advancing their patent and attend an awards ceremony in Washington, DC.

OK…here’s where you come in. People can vote on the submitted patents and we would love it if you would vote for our team!

Here’s what you do:

Go to link:

http://fllinnovationaward.firstlegoleague.org/

  • Click on “search” on bottom left side
  • Search for team-  “ibrick” (see the kids picture)
  • Click and vote for ibrick

You can actually vote daily if you like.

The contest, though not contingent solely on the actual hits, will tabulate the total number. Every vote counts.

The contest ends March 4. Feel free to pass on the link on to others to cast their votes too.

Thanks so much!

Team iBrick

Eli, Sam, and Jesse Parham and John, Josh and Caleb Pottebaum

For more on team ibrick, check out our website at : www.ibricknews.com

Student Receives Congressional Award Gold Medal

I was delighted to receive this update from the parents of one of our students.  (Shared with permission.)

Dear Dr. Cates,

Don’t know if you want updates like this, but…

Here is a picture of Matthew receiving the Congressional Award Gold Medal from Congressman Duncan in his Knoxville office last Monday. To earn this award Matthew greatly surpassed the required 800 hours of activities in Personal Fitness, Personal Development, and Volunteering, along with a 4 night camping trip that he helped plan…all over a 3 year span. These were activities that Matthew was doing anyway as part of our homeschool program, but it sure is nice to have an outside agency validate his hard work.

Yesterday we mailed in the paperwork for Stephen’s work on the first two certificate levels of the Congressional Award. He’s on track to earn the gold medal as well in the next 1-2 years. Andrew will be old enough to start his work on the award in the fall.

We sure appreciate your support and encouragement in helping our homeschool program be successful.

Blessings,

Kathy Waldrep