A STEM design competition that promotes interdisciplinary teams to work together on a real world problem as a member of a design team was announced today.
Students that participate in the 2011-2012 Real World Design Challenge for Surface Transportation will work to optimize the performance of a high speed motor coach by redesigning it to become a motor coach that will be fuel efficient. There are no costs to participate in this project, and the winning team from this competition will get a free trip to Washington, DC to present their work at the National Finals in April. All participating teams will get the same suite of professional tools that all Real World Design Challenge teams get, which are valued at one million dollars per team.
Click Here to Sign Up! Teams can sign up right now.
Background
The Real World Design Challenge is a national design competition with more than 7,800 high school students run by a public-private partnership with the goal of inspiring interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields and careers. Competition goals are to transform and enhance STEM education in the American educational system by providing science, engineering and learning resources that allow students and teachers to address an actual challenge confronting one of the nation’s most important industries.
The Real World Design Challenge provides an important opportunity for high school students to learn and understand the challenges that product engineers face every day. Programs like this give teachers the chance to show student teams the exciting technological advancements in design and give them the opportunity to unleash their creative potential in a real world design scenario.
PTC, a company that develops commercial-grade product development software, including Creo Elements/Pro® (3D product design software), Windchill® (PLM software) and Mathcad® (engineering calculation software), provides software to teams participating in the Real World Design Challenge. PTC also provides connections and access to mentors from its partner organizations across America who are participants in the competition or program management for the competition. In addition to PTC, other partner organizations have contributed resources to make the competition free to all students. Mentor Graphics has provided FloEFDTM (3D fluid flow, heat transfer analysis package).
Suggested Strategies
- Teacher review the “Getting Started” webpage.
- Schedule a regular plan for the team to meet.
- Help identify teachers from other subjects who will collaborate. Teams can include students from any subject, class or grade level at your high school. Students with presentation skills, computer skills, engineering skills, math skills, physics skills, project manager skills, artistic skills, etc. can be part of the team. It could include the auto shop or any class… it is up to teachers and students to decide.
- Find mentors right away to guide you and assist. You may use mentors provided by Real World Design Challenge or find mentor/partners at a local college or industry. You might find students from a peer mentoring program at a local university will be interested in mentoring the team. If you recruit a mentor, make sure the mentor signs up on the Real World Design Challenge website. Use this exposure with mentors to improve your regular classroom program.
- Help identify students in the team.
- Help identify resources.
- Help students get organized as a team with particular division of labor: i.e.: Project Manager,
- Project Engineer, Marketing and Communication Specialist, Artist, Computer Systems Set up and Support, etc.
- Make a plan for how to learn and use the software.
It is important to not delay but: “just get going!”
Key Dates
Kick Off: January 16, 2012
Submissions Due: April 8, 2012
Submissions scored by judges: April 10-18, 2012
The Webinar Award Ceremony & Announcement of the Winner: April 19, 2012.
State Coordinator Contact
Anthony Coppola