Area high school students vie for top spot in 2019 Student Design Competition

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  • By Bradley Hicks
  • AEDC/PA
ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, Tenn. --  Mars has become habitable, and the first group of colonists are on their way to establish settlements on the Red Planet.

To prepare for the settlers, teams of engineers have been assembled and tasked with terraforming the fourth planet from the sun by designing and constructing robots capable of traversing the hills and mountains making up the Martian surface. Each robot will carry a nuclear payload, and it is the goal of the engineers to construct devices that are able to release their explosive cargo at a specified location to complete the transformation of Mars.

But a serious problem has arisen. The colonists departed for Mars much earlier than initially anticipated. Rather than having six months to ready their robots, the engineers now had only two hours to design and build the devices and complete the terraforming process.

Nearly 50 students from seven area high schools took a crack at finding a solution to this hypothetical quandary during the annual Student Design Competition Feb. 19 at the University of Tennessee Space Institute.

The event coincided with National Engineers Week, which was Feb. 17-23. The Student Design Competition was one of several happenings that occurred at and around Arnold Air Force Base to celebrate National Engineers Week. Other activities included the Engineer for a Day event on Feb. 20 and the Engineers Week Banquet on Feb. 21.

According to organizers, the aim of the Student Design Competition is to bolster the interest of students taking part in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics-related fields.

“We’re hoping to give students a chance to see what engineering looks like, how it’s a problem-solving thought process, how you interact with different people and materials and theories,” said Paul Ritter, a test engineer and test analyst for the Space and Missile Combined Test Force at Arnold AFB and lead for the Student Design Competition event. “We’re hoping to challenge the students to think of these projects as a scenario that could occur in the real world.”

Because this year marks the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 landing on the moon, Student Design Competition organizers wanted to give this year’s event a space theme. To go along with the Mars-centric objective, movies such as “Apollo 13” and “The Martian” were projected on the walls of the UTSI Library where students worked and the planetarium from the Hands-On Science Center was set up near the competition area.

High schools in six nearby counties were invited to take part in this year’s competition. The students, made up of sophomores, juniors and seniors, formed teams of two. As students entered the UTSI Library, each of the 24 teams was provided a bag containing items such as wooden blocks, wheels, string, drinking straws and Popsicle sticks that could be used to build their payload-depositing devices. The students were given around two hours to design and finish construction.

The competition involved each team releasing their fully-constructed “robot” from the top of a ramp set up in the UTSI Library. The goal for the students was to build a device that would come to rest within a target placed on the floor several feet from the bottom of the ramp while simultaneously depositing its payload – in this case, fishing bobbers – in the center of the target.

Ritter said students were scored not only on how closely they accomplished this task, but also on the presentation each team was required to provide to the group before launching their robots.

“For engineers, something that we really have to push ourselves to be is better presenters and speakers, so part of that score is to present their design to the group,” he said. “They spend a few hours designing it, building it, putting it together, and then the competition is completed and they also present their idea.”

Arnold engineers who help with the competition build and test their own prototypes prior to the event to ensure the objective is possible for the students to complete. Ritter said the engineers are often surprised with the designs students come up with each year.

“We try and give them supplies not to tailor them towards anything, but to give them enough in their kit where they can be creative and come up with some things that we didn’t think of, which is what they usually do,” he said. “They come up with ideas that we never would have thought of.”

This year’s Student Design Competition received a positive response from both the students participating and the educators who attended to cheer them on.

“During the event, I talked with several teachers who came with their students. They were excited and enjoyed the competition,” said Paul Kelly, an aeropropulsion test engineer at Arnold AFB and Engineers Week planning committee chairman for National Engineers Week activities at the base. “The teachers are very supportive of this activity. They say it gives the students an opportunity to put into practice things they have learned in the classroom and to have fun at the same time. One told me that when the Student Design Competition event began 24 years ago, there were only a couple of students interested in STEM at her school. Now, due in large part to the design competition, there are 50 to 60 interested in STEM at her school.”

Kelly also acknowledged that the competition was fun for the students.

“The students were really into it,” he said. “They experienced setbacks but didn’t let that get them down. They came up with new designs and tried again. The project was challenging, and they all rose to the challenge. They had fun creating and competing their designs.”

Olga Oakley, Arnold Air Force Base STEM director, said the competition served to provide students with a glimpse of what it’s like to be an engineer and may help inspire their future career choices.

“I think the event was a great success and boosts the students’ interest in STEM-related fields,” she said. “High schoolers are starting to think more about the future and what path they are wanting to take. Therefore, this event was the perfect hands-on activity to show a day in the life of an engineer by demonstrating teamwork and working with limited supplies and time.”

Students from Shelbyville Central, Coffee County, Huntland, Lincoln County, Community, Grundy County and Tullahoma high schools participated in the competition.

Placing first were Lila Saunders and Natalie Todaro from Tullahoma High School. Along with a plaque, each student took home $100 for earning the top spot. Chanz Colbert and Garrett Jernigan from Huntland High School placed second, netting each student $75. The third-place finishers were Andrew Barrett and Luke Sweeney from Grundy County High School. Each of these students earned $50.

Sponsors for the Student Design Competition event included the Tennessee Society of Professional Engineers, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronauts, UTSI, the Hands-On Science Center and Arnold Air Force STEM.