KUA STEM Team on WCAX Channel 3 News
3/30/2012
Kimball Union's award-winning STEM Team were featured on the
WCAX Channel 3 news last night. The team, the
KUA Wildcats, were selected as the NH RWDC (Real World Design Challenge) 2012 State champions earlier this year.
On Monday, April 2, 2012, at 3:30 p.m. in his offices in Concord, NH, Governor John Lynch will listen to a brief presentation by the team and then present them with a citation. They will also be presented with the state trophy by the Commissioner of the NH Department of Education.
Coached by KUA math and science teacher Dr. Thomas Pasquini, the team was made up of seven members: Elizabeth Exton, Inseo Hwang, Jeff Kim, Ziyi Ling, Bill Peng, JR Jiang, and Diego Rossi.
The Real World Design Challenge (RWDC) is an annual high school competition run by a public-private partnership with the goal of sustainably increasing the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) workforce. The partners are focused on working within the context of the American educational system to transform STEM education in the United States by providing professional science, engineering, and learning resources to students and teachers.
Every teacher that participates in the RWDC gets $1 million in professional engineering software along with training, curriculum materials, and access to mentors. Teams of 3-7 high school students use these resources to solve an engineering challenge that is currently faced by industry.
This year’s state challenge was to design an efficient, low-carbon-emission and environmentally friendly personal light sport aircraft. The aircraft must accommodate two team members and fly 200 miles in less than two hours at a cruise altitude of 1000 feet above ground level (AGL) minimum. For the State Challenge, teams performed aerodynamic, propulsion, sizing, and weight estimation analyses to optimize wing geometry and minimize specific fuel consumption (SFC). Teams wrote a 2000 word essay on what they would see and do given the opportunity to fly their design across the country.
The KUA Wildcats will represent New Hampshire in the national competition in Washington, DC April 20-23. The National Challenge is to design an efficient, low-carbon-emission and environmentally friendly personal light sport aircraft. The aircraft must accommodate two team members and fly from Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, to Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, at a minimum cruise altitude of 1000 feet above ground level (AGL). Teams will continue to refine their winning LSA designs from the State Challenge, perform aerodynamic, propulsion, sizing, and weight and balance analyses to optimize the aircraft for the National mission. Teams are also required to write a 2000-word essay on what they would see and do given the opportunity to fly their aircraft design on the mission from Kitty Hawk to Dayton, Ohio.
Founded in 1813, Kimball Union Academy is an independent college preparatory boarding and day school for 315 students in grades 9-12 and PG located in Meriden, New Hampshire.
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