HTHS Engineering Academy News

From Jason Dooley and Tom Moulton, HTHS Engineering Academy Instructors


On April 6, 2018, the Engineering Academy sent 5 teams (12 total students) to compete at the State Science and Engineering Fair at UAH. Students who participated have already placed in the regional fair at UAB. We have never had this many teams compete at the state level. 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, as they represented our school extremely well.

1st Place in the Energy– 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 such as hurricanes and tornadoes. The umbrella folds up 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.
Awards: (Total Winnings $250)
1st Place in the Energy Category
Association of Energy Engineers Special Awards in the field of Physical Energy
2018 Alabama Science and Engineering Fair Positive Community Impact Trophy
United States Air Force Certificate of Achievement

3rd Place in the Biomedical Engineering Category – 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 currently sold by the medical industry.
Awards:
3rd Place in the Biomedical Engineering Category
United States Air Force Certificate of Achievement

4nd Place in the Embedded Systems/Systems Software category – 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 that are in the blind spot area.
Awards: (Total Winnings $125)
4th Place in the Embedded Systems/Systems Software category
The United States Army Certificate of Achievement for an Outstanding Science Fair Project
Boeing Certificate of Recognition and Achievement in the area of Embedded Systems
2018 Alabama Science and Engineering Fair Positive Community Impact Trophy
2018 Toyota Science and Engineering Fair Excellence in Science Research Award
Senior Best of Show Award from Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association

4th Place in the Engineering Category – Jacob Hayes and Joseph Seagle with their automatic drink lid dispenser. Have you ever had to pull apart drink lids at a fast food restaurant and wonder who else has been touching your lid? Their design allows drink lids to be dropped into the customer’s hand by simply waving your hand under the dispenser.
Awards: (Total Winnings $100)
Association of Energy Engineers Special Award in the field of Engineering Mechanics

4th Place in the Engineering Category: Ian Knapp, Michael Rodriguez, and David Murrell with their design that can 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.
Awards:
4th Place in the Engineering Category
Boeing Certificate of Recognition and Achievement in the area of Embedded Systems