Treats went flying by means of the air by the handfuls on the annual invention problem at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
The twenty-fifth invention problem at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, which welcomed more than 200 college students to compete utilizing home-built gadgets, was fairly candy this year. Actually.
That’s as a result of the problem on Friday, Dec. 6, competitors were to assemble an automatic machine that may launch, within 60 seconds, 50 chocolate-coated peanut candies over a barrier and right into a triangular Plexiglas container 16 feet (5 meters) away. The temper was tense as lecturers, mother and father, and JPL staff watched the “Peanut Sweet Toss Contest” from the sidelines, a few of them consuming the ammunition.
College students in 21 groups from Los Angeles and Orange County Center and excessive faculties turned to catapults, slingshots, flywheels, springs, and large rubber bands. There was a number of PVC pipes. An enormous gadget formed like a blue bunny shot sweet out of its nostril with the assistance of an air compressor, whereas different entries relied on leaf blowers and vacuums.
Some have been more profitable than others. In the end, it was an old-school design that gained first place for a workforce from Santa Monica Excessive Faculty: a modified crossbow.
“I attempted to give you one thing that was traditionally tried and true,” stated Steele Winterer, a senior on the workforce who produced the preliminary design. Like his teammates, Steele is within the college’s engineering program and helped construct the gadget throughout class. He described the method as “nerve-wracking,” “messy,” and “disorganized.” However, everybody discovered their function because the design was refined.
Second and third place went to groups from Oakwood Faculty in North Hollywood, which each took a firing-line strategy, utilizing 4 parallel wood gadgets, with one pupil per gadget firing after one another in fast succession.
Two regional invention challenges held at Costa Mesa Excessive Faculty and Augustus Hawkins Excessive Faculty in South L.A. final month had winnowed the sector to the 21 groups invited to the ultimate occasion at JPL. On the finals, three JPL-sponsored groups from out-of-state faculties and two groups that included grownup engineers confronted off in a parallel competition. On this second competitor group, retired JPL engineer Alan DeVault took first place, adopted by Boston Constitution Faculty of Science coming in second, and Centaurus Excessive Faculty from Colorado in third.
Held since 1998 (with a two-year break in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic), the competition was designed by JPL mechanical engineer Paul MacNeal to encourage college students to find a love for constructing issues and fixing issues. Scholar groups spend months designing, establishing, and testing their gadgets to attempt to win the brand new problem that MacNeal comes up with every year.
“When pupil groups come to the finals, they’re engaged simply as engineers are engaged within the work we do right here at JPL,” MacNeal stated. “It’s engineering for the enjoyment of it. It’s problem-solving; however, it’s additionally workforce-constructing. And it’s distinctive as a result of the guidelines changing yearly. The coed groups get to see JPL engineering groups compete aspect by aspect. I began this contest to indicate to college students that engineering is enjoyable!”
The occasion is supported by dozens of volunteers from JPL, which is managed by Caltech in Pasadena for NASA.
Melissa Pamer
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
626-314-4928
melissa.pamer@jpl.nasa.gov
2024-166
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Sourcing information and pictures from NASA.gov/information
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