Canterbury, Penn top TEAMS competition at Trine

More than 180 students on teams representing five area high schools and middle schools took part in the annual Tests of Engineering Aptitude, Mathematics and Science (TEAMS) competition on Feb. 20 at Trine University.

The event is a qualifier for the TEAMS national competition, to be held during the national Technology Student Association (TSA) conference June 22-26 in Atlanta, Georgia.

During the two parts of the contest conducted at Trine, the teams, consisting of four to eight students, completed a multiple-choice test and a design/build challenge, where they worked on and tested their solution to an assigned project. A third portion of the competition was conducted at the schools.

The theme for this year’s TEAMS competitions is “Engineering a Greener World.”

The Trine event awards travelling trophies to the teams with the highest scores on the multiple-choice test in Divisions I (11^th- and 12^th-grade teams) and II (ninth- and 10^th-grade teams).

A team from Canterbury High School in Fort Wayne, Indiana, was the champion in Division I, taking the John J. McKetta Outstanding Junior Engineering Team Award. Team members were Sam Witwer, Stephen Chapman, Rishubh Jain, Arnie Lal, Victor Li, Ben Elliott, Scott Wu and Sanjeeth Rajaram, coached by Dave Walda.

A team from Penn High School in Mishawaka, Indiana, won Division II and the Mike McKetta Outstanding Junior Engineering Team Award. Team members included Rebecca Mattson, Hamid Al-Fadhl, Courtney Sharpe, Komal Kumar, Karen Wang, Mia Schwartz, Keatch Smith and John Donarnma, coached by Becky Tagliaferri.

A team from Discovery Middle School in Granger, Indiana, won the middle school division. Team members were Alex Du, Ani Waghray, Addison Haines, Jedidiah Kim, Hunter Striegel, Jerry Yuan and Luca Nijim. The team is coached by Scott Vandygriff.

Teams from Kalamazoo (Michigan) Christian High School and Schmucker Middle School in Mishawaka also competed.

The TEAMS competition is hosted by Trine University’s McKetta Department of Chemical and Bioprocess Engineering.

Top photo: From left, Olivia Venditti, Gabby Heywood and Sydney Domal, members of a team from Penn High School, work on the design/build portion of the TEAMS competition hosted by Trine University. Photo by Dean Orewiler