Mahtomedi High School has won the Real World Design Challenge (RWDC) state championship for the ninth time, and this is the eighth year in a row! The Teams' next step is to compete in the RWDC National/International Championship on April 20th.
RWDC is an annual competition that provides students in grades 9-12 with the opportunity to solve a real-world problem by designing a practical and effective solution. The teams have been working since October to design an unmanned aircraft that can easily be hiked to a survey location where it could conduct surveys on forest fire areas to aid in efforts to prevent, fight, and recover from forest fires. The teams solved this challenge by using the Engineering Design Process to develop small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles that could gather information on pre-fire, active fire, and post-fire conditions. While designing their UAV, they considered the ease of use, flight time, and costs associated with the operation. As part of the EDP, the teams created detailed parts lists and models and ran simulations to assess the viability of their design.
Mahtomedi had three teams compete in the Minnesota State Challenge this year.
Team Zephyr Aerospace Products (ZAP) won the state competition, earning them a spot in the national competition. The team consisted of members Tim Schussler (Captain), Luke Vipond, Benjamin Hammond, Max Newcome, John Aufderhar, Jessica Aufderhar, and Molly Rotteger.
Team Firefly got second place in the state competition and was among the highest-scoring teams in the nation, earning them one of the five wildcard spaces in the national competition. The team’s members include Liam MacChesney (Co-Captain), Julian Cisek (Co-Captain), Alasdair MacChesney, Izzy Vipond, Amber Becker, Bjorn Anderson, and Arjun Chandra.
Team Inferno also scored close to the other teams. Team Inferno members were Isabelle Befidi (Co-Captain), Gabriella Fox (Co-Captain), Noah House (Co-Captain), Grady Severson, Levi Ternberg, Ethan Stout, Anton Kastler, and Charlie Dehan.
Team ZAP and team FireFly are working under the supervision of Engineering teacher and RWDC Coach Bryan Farmer and with the assistance of dedicated mentors to develop a solution for the RWDC National Challenge, which will be taking place virtually this year as they present from the Fabrication (Fab) Lab at Mahtomedi High School.