Westlake Tech Students Win Tons Of Awards

WESTLAKE, OH — Students in Westlake's Technology and Engineering department took home a shiny collection of awards from the Ohio State Fair Technology and Engineering Showcase. Among the bevy of ribbons won by the students was the prestigious Best of Show award.

The competition is held indoors, in a facility roughly the size of a football field, said Scott Kutz, a technology and engineering teacher at Westlake High School. The building is filled with exhibits and projects from high schools around the state, industry presentations, and local college displays. Because the building is part of the state fair, the technology and engineering showcase also shares spaces with 4H and girl scout troops.

Despite the two hour drive, Kutz eagerly packs up a vehicle and heads down to Columbus each year. Besides the spoils of competition, he likes to see the other projects on display. This year, for example, one high school brought a custom-made "How Many Licks Does It Take To Get to the Center of a Tootsie Pop?" machine. The device spun a tootsie pop around, against a fabricated tongue, and counted the number of rotations. Students then tracked how long it took to get to the center of the candy.

"This thing is so big and has been going on for so long, it’s a really neat thing to see," he said. "It’s one of the things that caught my eye." (To stay up to date on local stories, subscribe to the Patch Westlake newsletter. As news breaks and the story develops, you will be the first to receive updates from Patch.)

Student projects are entered across a variety of categories and then judged. A team of 2017 graduates took home the prestigous Best of Show award for their "Urban Reuse" and energy efficient model house design project. Mark Sargent, Hong (Jackson) Liang, David Eppele and Sneha Ramachandran entered their project in the Construction/Architecture Technology category.

The team of Kaitlin Willi, junior, Connor Harte, junior, and Connor Reis, junior, won the Outstanding Award ribbon for their own "Urban Reuse" and energy efficient model house design. Similarly, Michael Reese, senior, Robert Fulop, junior, and Patrick Gheen, junior, also won an Outstanding Award ribbon for their "Urban Reuse" and energy efficient model house design.

Some Westlake students also received Award of Merit ribbons for their projects. Those students include:

• Sneha Ramachandran (2017), Katie Willi, junior, Connor Harte, junior), and Patrick Gheen, junior, for their drone part redesign in the Manufacturing/Rapid Prototyping Technology category.
• The team of Mark Sargent (2017), Michael Rees, senior, and Connor Reis, junior, for their drone part redesign.
• Kaitlin Willi, junior, for her inlaid walnut table in the Manufacturing/Materials & Processes Technology category.
• Connor Harte, junior, for his drilling and tapping jig rendering and 3D printed model in the Computer Generated Technology category.

Even the high school's display won an award, taking home the Award of Excellence trophy.

The fieldhouse was filled with engineering and design projects, some reminiscent of Westlake students' own work. That similarity provides an important lesson to students, Kutz believes.

"The best design can come in many forms. There isn’t a perfect design. You can always improve something. It’s great because you see a lot of diversity and creativity," he told Patch. "That’s what our students learn: What it is to be innovative and creative. There can be many answers to one problem."

Photo from Westlake Schools