CSUF MESA High School Team Takes Off to National Competition in Maryland This Week
Future Engineering Students Compete in Trebuchet Event, Build Catapult Device Using Computer Simulations, Models

June 19, 2007 :: No. 236

Four students from Costa Mesa High School will be heading to Maryland this week to compete in the 2007 MESA USA National Engineering Design Competition.

Top (left to right)  Ted Lee, Dorian Flores,  Juan Dominguez. Bottom (left to right) Richard Kyo, Peter Pham

Last month, the high school team, affiliated with Cal State Fullerton’s MESA (Mathematics, Engineering and Science Achievement) program, won the California trebuchet — a type of catapult with a sling on the end — competition.

As a result, the team garnered a spot at the national event June 22-24 at the University of Maryland in Baltimore. The future engineering students will compete against teams from eight states.

This is the first time that a high school team from CSUF’s MESA program has advanced to the national competition, said Vonna Hammerschmitt, director of the university’s MESA program for students in 6th through 12th grade.

“We’re proud of the MESA team members. Their achievement helps to motivate and inspire other MESA students. This feat also brings nationwide visibility to the program — and to the university,” Hammerschmitt said.

For the team to get to the national level, Hammerschmitt said it means that the Costa Mesa students were better than any other team in the state. “They defeated 32 other teams at various venues across California to advance to the nationwide competition,” she added.

The Fullerton MESA team has had a longstanding track record of success. This year, the students’ winning trail began in February when the team finished first in the local MESA Day competition during CSUF’s Engineering Week, defeating 15 teams.

In March, the group competed against 11 teams and swept the Southern California regional competition in Imperial Valley. Then in May, the Fullerton team came home as the top winners in the MESA California Engineering Design Competition at Cal State Fresno.

Four years ago, the team was also the first group of Fullerton MESA student engineers ever to win first place overall in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory Invention Challenge, noted Steve Nelson, Costa Mesa High School MESA adviser. “I knew they were special then. I wanted them to close out their high school careers with us in a spectacular way — and, they sure did!”

The MESA competitions required students to design and build a trebuchet that demonstrates distance, accuracy and power.

“The trebuchet these students designed and constructed out-performed all others by a wide margin,” Hammerschmitt said.

Additionally, the students had to write a technical paper, design an academic display board and give an oral presentation.

The Costa Mesa students who will be competing on the MESA team in Maryland are Juan Dominguez, Dorian Flores, Richard Kyo and Ted Lee. Senior Peter Pham will be attending as the team’s manager. Three members of the team completed the Johns Hopkins “What Is Engineering?” summer course offered on the Cal State Fullerton campus to area high school students from educationally disadvantaged backgrounds who show promise in math and science. The other two are scheduled for this summer’s course, which begins July 9.

The students are thrilled about earning a spot at the national event and look forward to competing against their peers from other states. MESA, the CSUF College of Engineering and Computer Science and contributions from private donors are paying for their trip to Maryland.

“I couldn’t have imagined a better way to end our senior year,” Flores said. “I feel very proud to represent the state of California.”

Kyo added: “It has been a long haul. But in the end, all of the hours of hard work have paid off, and our success is the reward.”

For the competitions, the team built a prototype and used computer simulations to find the optimum size and weight of the components. They built three working models and practiced and refined their designs, Nelson said. In preparation for the national contest, the students have rewritten the technical paper three times, rebuilt the trebuchet, rehearsed their oral presentation and built a custom-designed travel case for the device.

“It’s been hectic, to say the least,” Nelson said, adding that the team members will be attending their high school graduation Thursday, then will board a plane for a red-eye flight to Maryland. 

“The CSUF MESA program has done so much to support our kids over the years that it is gratifying to share our success with them,” Nelson added.
Cal State Fullerton’s MESA program is an academic enrichment program, serving more than 1,400 students at seven area high schools and eight intermediate schools. The program offers a variety of services and activities to encourage students to pursue degrees in math, science, engineering and computer science.

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