Mishawaka High School is sending their Engineering Design and Development team to the Nanoline National Competition on Friday, February 18. The team of six students has certainly put in the work and earned their passage to the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania competition. They are one of the nine teams in the country to advance to nationals.
The Nanoline competition is centered around solving an original problem with an applicable solution. The team of students, including Devin Jodway, Wesley DeMonia, Keegan Phillips, Samantha Spencer, Correy Perrigo, and Abigail LaPlace, started with more than ninety ideas for their project. Eventually they decided upon an automated pneumatic tennis ball launcher dubbed the “Phoenix Contact Nanoline Controller.” They advocate that it can be used for an intense tennis workout or a game of fetch in the park.
The Engineering Design and Development class (EDD), taught by Mr. Ben Modlin, has been working on their project all year and began construction six weeks into the school year. The team receives funding for their project from the Parent-Teacher-Student Association (PTSA).
Before they made it to nationals, the team started with two qualifiers composed of nineteen teams in which groups presented their projects in powerpoint and video forms. Eight of these teams went to the midwest regional. Samantha Spencer notes that Penn High School’s team made no appearance at the regional competition two weeks ago. Only three teams advance from regionals to the national competition.
What comes next? After nationals, the group plans on improving and tweaking their project with more research and testing. This year was the first in which Mishawaka’s EDD class competed in the Nanoline competition and hopefully this will not be the last! EDD allows upperclassmen the opportunity to experience a glimpse into the work of an engineer and to apply their skills. Devin Jodway, a senior, remarks, “EED is fun; you learn and you start to develop new ideas that change your way of thinking.” Those interested in the class should speak with Mr. Modlin.