BEDARCHEI HATORAH WINTER 2022 | Page 30

were out of place , using radio frequency identification technology ( RFID ). Under the guidance of their teacher , Dr . Don Engelberg , they set about to create a hand-held scanner that uses RFID to read tags on shelved books and notify the user if they are out of place .
Yehoshua asked one of the Darchei Torah principals , who owns a personal library of over one thousand sefarim , if he thought such a device would be marketable . “ He thought the yeshiva could definitely use something like this ,” Yehoshua says . “ The scanning machine only costs about 25 dollars , and for 100 dollars you can buy 1,000 stickers for the books .”
The boys built the machine and developed the programming to make the scanner identify the books . “ There ’ s a fair amount of programming involved to determine if a book is out of place ,” Dr . Engelberg says . “ They had to learn about microprocessors , voltages , analog-to-digital conversion and vice versa , and basic programming language . They also learned how to work in a team to develop and market a product .” Dr . Engelberg , who has two sons who are Darchei alumni and four grandsons currently in the Yeshiva , believes that Libra-Scan would be quite effective for small libraries .
The final competition took place on January 3 , with judges Yvette Edidin , Zoli Honig , and Dov Friedman , all seasoned tech entrepreneurs , evaluating the presentations . They watched the team videos , and gave their feedback over Zoom .
The Darchei team did not win the grand prize — that honor went to three students from Rae Kushner Yeshiva High School who invented a biodegradable plastic substitute called Biowrap . But Yeshiva Darchei Torah is tremendously proud of Shmuel , Shaya , and Yehoshua for making it all the way to the finals , and for using their skills and ingenuity to produce a product the Yeshiva can actually employ in its library . May this be the start of many ingenious and successful innovations ! !
DR . DON ENGELBERG , THE YESHIVA ’ S STEM INSTRUCTOR

Over six million books are misplaced every year . He and his brother came up with the idea of producing a device that could scan library books and determine if they were out of place , using radio frequency identification technology ( RFID ).

RABBI MOSHE LEFF , PRINCIPAL OF THE MIDDLE SCHOOL , WITH TALMIDIM AT A CIJE ROBOTICS COMPETITION .
View the video about this project at Darchei . org / video
28 BEDARCHEI HATORAH WINTER 5782 / 2022