Woodstock Students Place 2nd In Engineering Competition

WOODSTOCK, GA -- A team of students from Woodstock High School has placed second in the nation in an engineering competition.

The five-member team, made up of ninth- and 10th-grade students, earned second place in the 2016 TEAMS (Tests of Engineering Aptitude, Mathematics, and Science) Best in Nation competition at the National Technology Student Association conference last week in Nashville.

The team, which is made up of Preston Alsup, Greg Carroll, Andy Jiang, Dylan Mason and Kaitlyn Provost, also placed second in the problem-solving competition and placed as a finalist in both the written essay and prepared presentations. Teacher Karen Zayance is the team’s coach.

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The national competition was open to teams that had placed in the top three at the state level, and approximately 1,000 students participated at nationals.

Students work together in the competitions to solve real-world problems written by industry leaders and college professors. The competition is designed to inspire students to solve complex engineering-based problems.

This year’s competition theme was “Engineering the Tools of Innovation,” and students competed in four areas: research and prepare an essay developing applications for optogenetics; complete multiple-choice questions on engineering, science and math topics; for the problem-solving competition, make an optical device to take light from one source to another, which was based on the Hubble telescope systems failure; and for the prepared presentation portion, address interplanetary travel and the innovations needed in order for it to be achieved.

“We are very proud of the innovations developed and presented by our students earning them second place in the nation," Principal Mark Smith said.

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Photo: from left to right, Kaitlyn Provost, Andy Jiang, Dylan Mason, Preston Alsup and Greg Carroll. Credit: Cherokee County School District