by Catherine Porter
marketing and communication '16
MARCH 16 – Nineteen area teams recently competed at Trine University during an annual
competition designed to help middle and high school students discover their potential
for engineering.
Fifteen high school and four middle school teams from Indiana and Michigan competed
in the TEAMS (Tests of Engineering Aptitude, Mathematics and Science) competition
Feb. 23 in the University Center. The theme for this year’s competition was "Engineering
the Tools of Innovation.”
Using math, science, engineering and 21st century learning skills, students worked
collaboratively to solve real-world everyday challenges. The two-part test included
a 90-minute multiple choice exam and a 90-minute design challenge where students built
a paper skyscraper.
Trine University host site awards traveling trophies to the top teams in Divisions
I and II. The winner for Division I was the Penn High School, Mishawaka, 11th- and
12th-grade Team C. A team of 9th- and 10th-graders representing Penn High School also
won Division II. Discovery Middle School Team A won the middle school division of
the competition.
Those on the winning Division I Penn High School team are Mason Lee, Peter Rutkowski,
Vishal Patel, Andrew Bernard, Julia Kwak, Monesh Devireddy, Alex Dobbins and Annaliza
Canda, led by coach Becky Tagliaferri.
Members of the Penn High School team that won Division II are Keegan Palonis, Priya
Chaudhary, Tingyi Lu, Chelsea Chen, Becca Yuan, Amy Bernard, Celine Wang and Leah
Ingle, also led by Tagliaferri.
The winning middle school team, headed by coach Michelle Crawford, included Yewon
Oh, Tara Devaraj, Lyvia Li, Courney Sharpe, Elisabeth Casetti, Hassaan Khan, Seunghoon
Sun and Noah Lang.
Trine University’s McKetta Department of Chemical and Bioprocess Engineering sponsored
the John J. McKetta Outstanding Junior Engineering Team Award and the Mike McKetta
Outstanding Junior Engineering Team Award for Divisions I and II, respectively, based
on the scores on part 1 of the exam.
To learn more about the TEAMS competition, visit teams.tsaweb.org.
Division II winning team
Middle School winning team
