11 June 2008
Young Engineers Win Bragging Rights by Moving Water Uphill
Tech challenge goal is to inspire students, find solutions to problems
Washington -- For peoples ancient and modern, one of the most important technical challenges has been how to move water from a lower level to a higher level, from the stream in the valley to the village on the high ground. While such a critical technical problem usually has not been entrusted to young people, for more than 20 years, the Tech Museum of Innovation, known as The Tech, in San Jose, California, has posed just such significant engineering challenges and has invited teams of young people to come up with solutions.
In 2007, some 155 teams of California kids from grades six through 12 tackled designing and building an unmanned Mars rover that could survive a 3.7-meter drop into a Martian crater, as if it dropped from space, and then successfully climb the 1.8-meter walls of a crater. (See “Engineering Competition Offers Fun, Inspiration for Teens.”)
This year, a record 230 teams -- some from as far away as India -- and more than 900 students in grades five to 12 took the challenge to design a simple device to move water from a stream up to a village on a hill without using electricity.
"Our goal at The Tech is to both inspire the innovator in everyone and at the same time raise awareness and find solutions for some of the greatest challenges facing communities around the world," said Peter Friess, president of The Tech, when announcing the new challenge in November 2007.
Darren Yang, a 15-year-old in the 10th grade at Cupertino High School in Cupertino, California, had wanted to compete in the Tech Challenge since middle school but lacked the required group. Jerry Lu, another sophomore at the same school, formed a team with him. Timothy Maxwell, another Cupertino sophomore, joined them once the design process was under way. “We all decided to do it just for fun (as well as the bragging rights),” the Mortals said in an e-mail interview.
They called themselves The Mortals as a joke. “We wanted to be lazy and ‘dress up’ according to our group name, without putting too much effort into finding or making our own costumes.”
Most of the teams design special outfits or T-shirts for themselves.
But even dressed as mere mortals, at the competition May 3 the team won first place in the ninth- to 12th-grade category for “Best Overall Solution,” which encompasses device performance, engineering process and style and presentation.
Asked how they arrived at their solution, the Mortals said they began by trying to combine all their initial ideas into one machine. “The resulting machine was supposed to have two full water wheels connected with a chain, with the bottom wheel spinning the top wheel, which pulled the water up using a combination of buckets and coils. Then Tim joined our group, and we decided to change the design. We were not very organized, so our design plans fluctuated from one day to the next. We went back and forth between different modifications to our machine, and then finally decided on a design, which we built.”
As for advice to future teams entering the Tech Challenge for the first time, Tim said, "Find a wannabe engineer or two for your team.” He “loved designing and building the machine, as well as playing with the roller chain.”
He added that the team’s knowledge of woodworking and construction tools, especially power drills and power saws, “came in handy.”
"Stick to the basics -- simple ideas,” Darren advised. “Complex plans would be complex to execute, which would mean poor construction/hasty work if you are restricted on time.”
Jerry says team composition is crucial. "Find a group you know you will work well with. Also, find people who actually know what they are doing, not friends who decide to make a group just because they are friends. Finally, make sure that the people in your group are willing to work."
Past Tech Challenges usually began “Design, build and operate a device ....” The nature of the specific practical problem can vary widely, however. These were some of the past challenges:
• Filling sandbags for use in a flood.
• Retrieving water from a lake and delivering it to fight a fire on the top of the ridge.
• Retrieving a tropical tree sample from the top of a rain forest canopy.
• Repairing a drifting satellite that is slowly rotating in space.
The usual time allotted for the device to perform its feat? Three minutes.
“I immensely enjoy the day of the Challenge, when you can stroll among the teams and see the incredible variety of solutions to a single problem,” says Arthur Hicks, who has coached teams of contenders, beginning with his son’s team and then his daughter’s team. “The creative enthusiasm of the teams always impresses me.”
Over the years, Hicks has seen the kids he coached go on to major in science, engineering and technical fields in college.
He also finds that “the ability to get along within a team is essential. Despite the fact that individual effort and responsibility are key components, the most efficient organizations have players who direct their efforts toward the common goal and don’t waste a lot of time reinventing things that have already been achieved in the team.”
Also see Education.
