On March 3, the Hewitt-Trussville High School Engineering Academy sent 18 teams to compete in the Central Alabama Regional Science and Engineering Fair at UAB.
Students have been working hard on their projects all year, following the engineering design process to develop a working prototype to solve their chosen problem. We are very proud of all of our students who participated. The following students placed or received honorable mention. Students who placed in the top three moved on to compete at the State Science Fair in April:
Energy and Transportation
First Place: Ian Knapp, Michael Rodriguez and David Murrell with their design to retrofit an existing longboard with brakes. Their design incorporated a handheld grip that allows the rider to stop their longboard using an under-mounted braking system.
Second Place: Vraj Patel and Emily Coggins with their prototype that utilizes microwave sensors to add blind spot detection onto existing cars. Their design has a new dashboard that has LED indicators and an LCD readout screen alerting drivers of cars in the blind spot area.
Third Place: Hayden Parks, Drew Kinzer and Nathan Feagans with their emergency solar panel umbrella system. Their design is a folding solar umbrella that can be deployed after emergency situations, like hurricanes and tornadoes. The umbrella folds into a compact box for easy storage and deployment. This one umbrella can generate 100 watts of power, which would be able to charge up to 109 cellphones after one day of sun.
Engineering Category
First Place: Long Nguyen, Ethan Swatek and Cannon Riccio with their 3D printed affordable leg braces. Their design provides custom fitted leg braces that can be 3D printed. This will provide a custom fit and a cheaper alternative to the expensive leg braces sold by the medical industry.
Second Place: Jacob Hayes and Joseph Seagle with their automatic drink lid dispenser. Their design allows drink lids to be dropped into the customer’s hand by simply waving your hand under the dispenser.
Honorable Mentions:
Jade Thomas, Jaylan Maddox and Anna Houser with their adjustable cellphone grip and stylus for individuals suffering from arthritis.
Caleb Knox, Brandon Breau and Sam Thompson with their automatic stop sign indication. Their device adds red and green LED lights to existing stop signs to indicate whose turn it is to go.
Connor Gallagher with his 3D printed compact eyeglasses. His design allows glasses to be quickly disassembled into four components and then they magnetically lock together for simple and easy storage in your pocket or purse.
Special Awards
Yale Science and Engineering Association Most Outstanding Exhibit Award: Hayden Parks, Drew Kinzer and Nathan Feagans with their emergency solar panel umbrella system.
Submitted by Trussville City Schools.
