Aurora, Illinois, City Council honors students who place second in international tech competition

Aurora, Illinois, is celebrating six students who won second place in an international tech competition.Aurora, Illinois, is celebrating six students who won second place in an international competition.

Aurora Mayor John Laesch honored the students from Team Timeless' achievement in the International Lego League competition during a City Council meeting this week. In the First Lego League competition, young people engage in hands-on STEM experiences by solving real-world problems through coding, engineering, and research.

From June 11 to June 14, the team competed against more than 100 others last month in Massachusetts. The team is composed of seventh-graders Adhrit Chavali, Ananya Kovvuri, Aditya Kovvuri, Jaivarshan Annamalai, and Girivarshan Annamalai, and third-grader Siddharth Chavali.

Team Timeless developed an AI-powered application that uses image recognition to help archaeologists identify stone artifacts.

Team Timeless earned the Champion's Finalist Award, which is considered one of the highest honors available in the competition. Before advancing to the international tournament, Team Timeless prevailed over 510 other Illinois teams to represent the state o the international stage.

"We chose to solve a real challenge faced by archeologists," said team member Adhrit. "We developed an innovative app to help identify artifacts more quickly and accurately, making the process easier for archaeologists, museums and researchers around the world."

The application was featured at the Native American Hall at the Elgin Public Museum to demonstrate how artificial intelligence can both support archaeology and preserve history.