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To compete in a race against the clock and each other, 18 student teams built complicated contraptions for the annual Invention Challenge at NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.<\/em><\/p>\n Some 250 students hauled homemade machines they\u2019d spent weeks honing to NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California on Friday, Dec. 8, for the 24th annual JPL Invention Challenge.<\/p>\n The rules for the creative engineering competition change every year, but the overall goal is the same: Build a device capable of accomplishing a specified task within 60 seconds. This year, teams needed to come up with machines that could accomplish seven consecutive steps, ultimately dropping a crumpled piece of paper in a wastebasket. Students employed trebuchet catapults, crossbows, small motors, and \u201cthings with a bit of oomph,\u201d said mechanical systems engineer Paul MacNeal, who has been organizing the competition since it began in 1998.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Mouse Trap game from when I was a little kid is what it\u2019s patterned after,\u201d MacNeal said, referring to the board game in which players would construct elaborate traps for each other\u2019s plastic rodents. \u201cIt was such a tough competition this year. It\u2019s almost like unfolding the James Webb Space Telescope: Every action has to go right.\u201d<\/p>\n And in this competition, fast. Every team that completed the task did so in under five seconds.<\/p>\n Team Pink, the winning student team from Oakwood High School in North Hollywood, California, sank its paper ball in the basket in just 1.25 seconds, using a launcher at the start to knock over a series of five dominoes. The last domino hit a switch that turned on a conveyor belt to push the paper ball into the basket.<\/p>\n \u201cI was a little nervous at the beginning,\u201d said Team Pink member and Oakwood High senior Midori Bonner. \u201cThere are a lot of good teams that were going really fast, but we\u2019ve been training so hard for almost four months, I had faith in our team and the work we had put in.\u201d<\/p>\n Team Roman Bridge from Los Angeles Senior High School and Team Green from Oakwood High School took second and third place, respectively.<\/p>\n Eighteen of the student teams competing in Friday\u2019s finals had survived two regional events in November involving 40 school teams from Los Angeles and Orange counties. Four JPL-sponsored teams of professional engineers separately battled it out.<\/p>\n Having professional engineers compete is part of MacNeal\u2019s larger goal of inspiring students: He started the free competition so that they could experience the fun of hands-on engineering and of STEM learning while developing team-building skills along the way. He provides participants with nothing but the rules; teams have to figure out the rest themselves.<\/p>\n \u201cEven if they don\u2019t do well, they worked hard to get where they were,\u201d MacNeal said. \u201cIt\u2019s just satisfying to see all the inventions they come up with.\u201d<\/p>\n Melissa Pamer 2023-179<\/p>\n<\/div>\nNews Media Contact<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
626-314-4928
melissa.pamer@jpl.nasa.gov<\/p>\n