Engineering Students Lead the Way

How many engineering students does it take to quickly solve a design problem using specific materials while adhering to particular criteria?

That question, along with many more, was answered at the 2011 Chevron/Project Lead the Way (PLTW) Engineering Design Challenge held on May 21 at Santana High School.

For the second year, current and former students of PLTW’s Introduction to Engineering Design course put their knowledge and skills to the test at the state finals competition. The top three teams of middle and high school students from the Sacramento, San Diego, San Jose and Los Angeles regional competitions were invited to showcase their talents at the event.

Eleven teams of three spent the day using 3-D modeling software to solve a design challenge—creating a Chevron bus shelter that would be installed at a bus stop. It needed to be appealing as well as secure and safe. The shelter had to include three solar panels, four batteries and one inverter.

SDSU involvement

SDSU’s College of Engineering helped bring PLTW to California nine years ago. SDSU is a PLTW affiliate institute for the state of California, and is a driver in preparing students to be leaders in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The Chevron Design Challenge is a culmination of the work PLTW does with K-12 students and teachers.

The competition

Two teams from Sacramento were from Futures and Cordova High Schools. Three teams from San Diego were from Santana, La Costa Canyon and Kearny High Schools. San Jose was represented by three teams from Gunn, Leland and Westmont High Schools; and Los Angeles by teams from Warren High School, California Academy of Mathematics and Sciences and Hawthorne School of Engineering.

The competitors were given a brief at the start of the day and evaluated on their organizational skills, concepts, teamwork and ability to meet deadlines at each phase of the engineering process. A panel of four professional engineers judged their final presentations.


At the end of the day, Juan Garcia, Chevron community/government affairs manager, praised the creativity, talent and intelligence of the competitors and hailed them as future leaders, scientists and engineers.

“I was very, very impressed with what the students did today,” Garcia said. “For us at Chevron, it is a great partnership we’ve developed with Project Lead the Way.”

And the winners…

First place went to the team from the Redondo Beach school, California Academy of Mathematics and Sciences led by Dirk Davis. The students, David Doan, Jyrrl Figueroa and Renzo Revilla had the highest scores in all aspects of the competition for their design and presentation.