A group of current and former students from Staten Island Tech are in the running for up to a million dollars.
It's all thanks to their high-tech invention. NY1's Lindsay Tuchman filed the following report.
A group of current and former students at Staten Island Tech are perfecting a product they created from scratch.
TrueSound HiFi is an accessory for the Moto Z smartphone and it’s geared towards musicians looking for an enhanced audio experience.
After winning a design competition in December, the group pitched their product to Motorola and a tech investment group last week, and was picked to get up to one million dollars.
"Here we are three months later and it's become a real thing and probably an opportunity to make it really big,” 11th grader Mark Ayad said.
"Just knowing that everyone in tech believes in us, at Motorola believes in us, has given us the support to get this far, it's just so heartwarming,” alum Abigail Brown said.
Much of the team's engineering goes on inside Tech's new "MakerSpace," an open lab for inventing and building with the help of computer science teachers.
"So that if they have an idea, they can take that idea, use the tools, use our resources to try and make that into a reality,” Dr. Jared Jax, computer science teacher and manager said.
The team has access to 3D printers at the school which helped them make a prototype design, which they believe created an advantage in getting the investment.
The teens named their company MACAY labs, each letter representing the first initial of all their names. They hope with the investment, their product will one day be sold on shelves.
"I think that working with technology definitely gives you a chance to help mold the future,” Brown said. “Which should be important to everyone."