The Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts placed three teams in the top four at the 2022 TEAMS Engineering Competition.
TEAMS is an acronym for Tests of Engineering Aptitude, Mathematics and Science. The annual competition is sponsored by the Technology Students Association. The competition’s theme is based on the Grand Challenges of Engineering.
This year’s theme was “Engineering in Entertainment.” The competition consists of three parts: an essay, a 90-minute multiple choice test and a design-build component. The scores from each are tallied, and the overall winner is determined.
ASMSA had three teams compete in this year’s state competition. The teams were comprised of junior students in the Engineering Capstone as well as two sophomores. ASMSA won first place, second place and fourth place in the competition, which was held virtually. The teams competed on February 24 but did not find out results until later in the spring semester.
Members of the first-place team were junior Buddha Moore of Hampton, junior John Tucker of Bald Knob, senior Kaleb O’Connor of Tyronza and junior Robert Boerwinkle of El Dorado. Second-place team members were juniors Cason Buzzard of Bismarck, Nikolas Williams of Alexander, Spencer Robinson of West Memphis and Jake Ouyang of Hot Springs Village. The fourth-place team members were junior Riya Patel of Bald Knob, junior Lydia Krebs of Maumelle, sophomore Gavin Chen of Little Rock and sophomore Nasya Choy of Conway.
Shane Thompson, a physics and engineering instructor at ASMSA, said he pleased with how the teams competed.
“I am very proud of each of these groups,” Thompson said. “The way the event is structured it is impossible to know how we did until the national results are announced, which is about two months after the event. I received the email about the results, and I kept it secret until the next capstone class meeting. There was a healthy round of cheering and jeering in the room. It was great!”
Thompson said the teams knew the generalized topics ahead of the event. The students chose their teams and topics to specialize in before the holiday break in December. The essay topic detailed a renovation plan for a baseball stadium that would be converted into a sports and concert venue. Team members were allowed to collaborate on answers for the multiple choice exam. For the build component, the teams designed a roller coaster according to a set of criteria.
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
Kaleb O’Connor, a member of the first place team, said for the building component, they were only told they needed to build a roller coaster and provided a materials cost sheet along with a scoring sheet.
“There were dozens of materials, and each of them cost X amounts,” O’Connor said. “You would get points from completing tasks on the score sheets, such as completed loops, and any material costs would be deducted from the total points you earned. Our completed roller coaster consisted of horizontal and vertical loops and a zipline, which I thought was very creative and cool.”
O’Connor said he completed a material engineering project for the West Central Regional Science Fair. The project explored a more efficient way to bridge a gap while 3D printing. He was able to apply what he learned in that project to the competition build.
“Instead of using supports, which waste materials, I found a way to print between two pillars without having to use supports. I feel that my science fair project prepared me for the building competition as it taught me how to efficiently use materials, and I was able to apply some principles from my project to the building competition. Capstone also prepared me to write engineering research papers, which was a major part of the competition,” he said.
Thompson said that a major benefit of the competition is that the students learn to work together.
“I feel the real benefit in participating in events like this lies within the teamwork that a team forms before, during and after,” Thompson said. “Cooperation is a trait that engineers need to complete their projects, as opposed to individualistic competition. Many of our students have had negative experiences with working on teams, and this is an opportunity for them to experience camaraderie that can come with cooperation.”
O’Connor said he was excited to learn not only how well his team had performed but the other teams as well.
“I was thrilled when I heard more ASMSA teams had placed! There was a lot of preparation involved with this competition, and I was happy to hear their hard work paid off,” O’Connor said.