Kelsey Ann Murobayashi, 17, of Mililani, has a potential solution for all the woes that automobiles bring with them: traffic, parking demands, fuel consumption and accidents, some of them fatal.
Her solution? The POD — an autonomous automobile that addresses all those problems.
The preprogrammed, egg-shaped pods run along tracks using alternative energy, including the heat created from rail friction as well as wind-powered propellors. They use technology to avoid collisions and self-park.
"I just think driving causes so much anxiety," said Kelsey, who does not drive yet. "And just the worry about someone cutting in front of you."
She brought her idea to life in a video, wrote up a script and used eggs as a model of the pods, demonstrating how they work with toy cars, tracks and trees made of pipe cleaners and fuzzy pompoms.
With her video, Kelsey, a senior at the Kosasa Academy, was one of six winners selected from hundreds of contestants nationwide in the "Disney Big Hero 6 — XPRIZE Challenge."
Much like the characters in Disney’s "Big Hero 6," students between the ages of 8 and 17 were invited to come up with innovative ideas to tackle some of the world’s biggest challenges using science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics (S.T.E.A.M.).
The six winners were invited to walk the red carpet this month at the Hollywood premiere of "Big Hero 6," given a private tour of Walt Disney Animation Studios and participated in a workshop at XPRIZE headquarters.
Kelsey said the best part was meeting some of the people there, including the creative minds behind the movie as well as David Zweig, creative director at XPRIZE.
She also got to meet Scott Adsit, the voice of Baymax in "Big Hero 6."
The winners were selected based on a combination of public voting and scores from a panel of judges that included Ed Catmull, president of Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios; Gwynne Shotwell, president and CEO of SpaceX; inventor and entrepreneur Dean Kamen; Anousheh Ansari, co-founder and chairwoman of Prodea Systems (and the first female private space explorer); and Jon Snoddy, vice president, Walt Disney Imagineering Research and Development.
Kelsey, who hopes to work for Disney or the animation and film industry one day, came across the contest on YouTube and decided to enter.
In all, the video took Kelsey about 25 working hours to make over a period of two months. Overall, it was fun, she said, though there were some stressful moments.
She was able to move the pods using chopsticks. Not crazy about public speaking, she opted to let her Apple computer’s voice speak in the video but waves goodbye at the end.
Her advice to others is to take a chance at pursuing your dreams and to put the work into it.
This was her first time participating in an online contest.
"First of all, don’t be lazy," she said. Second: "Just be your own person."
Kelsey’s parents, Craig and Esther Murobayashi, both work as pharmacists, so they have a scientific background.
But Kelsey is the one with the creativity, said Craig Murobayashi. He highly recommends the contest to others as a learning experience.
"It really fosters their creativity, their critical thinking," he said. "But it also gave her a lot of self-confidence. Learning how much work is involved in having an idea and bringing it to presentation mode, the process in itself was a learning experience."
While Kelsey, who has dyslexia, doesn’t have any one particular favorite subject at school, she has a creative streak. She enjoys creating videos, painting and photography, and also plays the piano and guitar.
The other "Big 6" winners were Kamran Ansari, 9, of Tustin, Calif.; Jasmyne Mendoza, 11, of Seattle; Dominick Quaye, 12, of San Leandro, Calif.; Chase Lewis, 15, of Chapel Hill, N.C.; and Carolyn Mennecke, 17, of Rochester, Minn.
They tackled problems ranging from world hunger to excessive product packaging.
XPRIZE, founded in 1995, is a California-based organization focused on solving the world’s challenges by creating high-profile contests in five areas: learning, exploration, energy and environment, global development and life sciences. Currently, there is a MoonBots Challenge that offers the grand-prize winner a trip to the Pacific International Space Center for Exploration Systems (PISCES) in Hilo to test out their LEGO Ev3 robot on the slopes of Mauna Kea. Visit www. xprize.org to learn more.
Kelsey’s winning video: bit.ly/1oVTaLT
