PV students compete in design challenge preliminary contest
On Feb. 3, 2016, Pascack Valley seniors Ana Beyer and Eli O’Connor and junior Alex Corring attended The Panasonic Creative Design Challenge Preliminary Contest. The contest was hosted by New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) and Panasonic, and challenged students from high schools all over New Jersey to create a device that completed a certain task on a course related to a real life situation.
Mr. Adam Ostrowski, who teaches engineering at both Pascack Valley and Pascack Hills, and Mr. Jim Kennedy, a technology and engineering teacher at PV, who was also the advisor of the competition for Pascack Valley, also accompanied the students to the contest.
These students were selected by their teacher, Ostrowski, during a “mini competition” with their Honors Engineering Design II class to see which team of three would attend.
“It was really interesting to see all of the teams’ different interpretations to solve the same challenge,” Beyer said.
This year, the task involved nuclear waste and cleanup. The participants’ job was to create a device that simulated how machines would clean up a spill from a nuclear reactor without the risk of people being infected.
“It was a good experience to have if you are interested in engineering,” Corring said. “Not only do you learn the process of what an engineer goes through, but it also strengthens your ability to solve problems with critical thinking.”
