Now in its 26th year, the event brings teams of middle and high school students into the lab to compete in homemade contraptions.
Teens wielding power tools and plywood showed off their engineering prowess at the annual invention competition at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California on Friday. There's also evidence: lots of small motors, 3D-printed gears, PVC pipes and duct tape.
First held at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1998, the event pits middle and high school teams against each other as they try to obtain hand-crafted devices to complete a task that changes annually. For this year's competition, called the Bucket Crew Competition, teams had to create devices that could move about 2 gallons (8 liters) of water from a storage tank to a bucket about 16 feet (5 meters) away in 60 seconds, while simultaneously satisfying a long list of challenges. rules.
A total of 18 teams of middle and high school students from Los Angeles and Orange counties competed. First place was taken by the Still Water team from Arcadia High School, completing the task in just 6.45 seconds. Mission Viejo High's senior team trailed with a time of 6.71 seconds. Samo Seals' team from Santa Monica High took third place with a time of 9.18 seconds.
Five teams from outside the region were also invited to participate—four from schools in Colorado and Massachusetts and one from professional engineering. Of these, the team led by former JPL engineer Alan DeWalt took first place (a repeat of last year). And “Team 6,” from Pioneer Charter Science School in the Boston area, took second place (also a repeat of 2024). No team is competing for third place.
The judges named Mission Viejo's Clankers as the most artistic, Pioneer Charter Science's Team 6 as the most unusual, and Temple City's Winning Engineering Team (WET) as the most creative.
The event was supported by dozens of JPL employee volunteers. The guest judge was JPL Fire Chief Dave Dollarhide, who is familiar with the bucket brigade.
Melissa shows off
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.
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