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Cal
State Fullerton to Host National Engineering Design Competition |
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| The event — featuring student
contestants from California, Arizona, Colorado, Maryland, New Mexico,
Oregon, Utah and Washington — is hosted by Cal State Fullerton’s
MESA program on the CSUF campus.
June 9, 2005 :: No. 234 Sixteen middle and high school teams from eight states will be competing for bragging rights to the best mousetrap-powered vehicle during the MESA (Mathematics, Engineering and Science Achievement) National Engineering Design Competition June 25. The event — featuring student contestants from California, Arizona, Colorado, Maryland, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah and Washington — is hosted by Cal State Fullerton’s MESA program on the CSUF campus. “MESA has been on the Fullerton campus for some 25 years motivating and preparing precollege students to pursue math, science and engineering and computing majors,” said Vonna Hammerschmitt, director of the CSUF program. “This event is creating much excitement within the program because it is the first time this event has been held in California.” “Design is all about seeking and finding solutions for problems and doing so under constraints of money, time, material, technology and available personnel,” said Raman M. Unnikrishnan, dean of the CSUF College of Engineering and Computer Science. “MESA has done an outstanding job of introducing engineering to the precollege community. This competition reinforces everything every prospective engineering student needs to know.” The competition consists of an oral presentation, technical paper and academic display, as well as vehicle trials. The races include traveling up an incline, stopping closest to a target five meters away and clocking the fastest elapsed time over a 10-meter distance. Participating teams have earned a place by having the best score in their state competitions. Judges are volunteers from the companies of SBC, Raytheon, Boeing, Fluor and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The event kicks off at 8:30 a.m. with oral presentations and judging of academic displays in the Titan Student Union. Vehicle races begin at 12:30 p.m. in Titan Gym. CSUF’s MESA program offers academic excellence workshops and other activities to more than 1,400 students from six area high schools and eight intermediate schools. Events include MESA Day — held this year in February — where students competed in contests that utilize math, science and engineering knowledge, including flying gliders, bridge building, crystal growing and the packaged egg drop contest. Cal State Fullerton also operates a MESA Engineering Program as one of several outreach programs in the College of Engineering and Computer Science.
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