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Tucson High Magnet Students Win National Engineering Design Competition

Students from Tucson High Magnet School representing the state of Arizona were named National Champions at the MESA USA National Engineering Design Competition in Baltimore, Maryland. This is the second year in a row that the Tucson High team has won the competition.

Tucson High Magnet School team pit their modern version of an ancient counterweight trebuchet against designs created by other students from around the nation. While ancient trebuchets were used to launch projectiles such as heavy stone orbs into enemy territory, the MESA National Engineering Design Competition challenged students to develop multi-task trebuchets to launch projectiles weighing a least 40 grams, with the constraint that the counterweight providing energy to the device weigh no more than 1,500 grams. All trebuchets at the competition were judged for accuracy and distance of the launch, and on the efficiency of the design. The strength of the trebuchet was also judged for the high school competition. In addition to these tests, the national competition requires each of the teams to create a poster display, prepare a technical paper and present their design orally before a panel of industry judges.

The Tucson High School team took first place in the categories of Academic Display, Oral Presentation, Distance, Design Efficiency, and Strength. They placed third for Accuracy.

Pictured above, the winning Tucson High team: Ernie Somoza, Nicole Cotanche, Susma Ghimire, Isaac Tineo, Advisor - Sheila Marquez