Nashua North InvenTeam working toward EurekaFest

As the second semester begins, many seniors at Nashua High School North have been tempted to settle into a routine of procrastination in their final months of high school. But for a group of six seniors, their continuing work developing a bacteria battery for the school’s Lemelson-MIT InvenTeam has kept them busy. North’s InvenTeam consists of Meghan Dezurick, Madeline Doctor, Theresa Inzerillo, Priyanka Satpute, Craig Hammond and Chris Jones. Each senior serves a unique role in the project, which started at the beginning of the school year when the group was awarded a coveted Lemelson-MIT grant for the funding of the battery’s development. The North InvenTeam was one of just a few across the country to win the grant. “We are hoping to create a product that will be able to provide cheap energy for rural and developing nations,” said Hammond, who has been developing the technical aspect of the battery. “The bacteria battery will be powered by a readily available fuel source. Right now, the technical role is working with different types of compost to see how effective each would be as a fuel source in the battery.” But the project’s technical side is only one component of its development. The InvenTeam’s communications side has been kept busy, as the project requires teams to submit monthly reports and videos to the Lemelson-MIT Initiative. The team has also been required to keep a blog, and runs its own Twitter and Instagram, allowing local partners to keep in touch with the team. “In my role as the financial lead, I have a financial goal to make for each month,” Inzerillo said.