Cal State Fullerton’s MESA Students Catapult to First Place
Future Engineers from Costa Mesa High Build Winning Trebuchet Design, Advance to State Competition
April 10, 2007
By Debra Cano Ramos
For a team of future engineers from Costa Mesa High School, working many late nights and weekends to perfect their medieval-type throwing device to win the regional trebuchet competition paid off.
The students finished first in the Southern California Regional MESA (Mathematics, Engineering and Science Achievement) National Design competition March 24 at Imperial Valley College. Fourteen teams competed from four Southern California MESA programs: Cal State Fullerton, UC Riverside, UC Irvine and Imperial Valley College.
The Costa Mesa High School team, affiliated with CSUF’s program, has advanced to the May 12 state competition at Cal State Fresno. They will compete against seven teams, including a junior high team and a high school team from each of the four MESA statewide regions: southern, central, northern and Los Angeles.
Juan Dominguez, Richard Kyo and Dorian Flores, from
left, were part of the Costa Mesa High School team that took home first
place in the recent trebuchet (a type of catapult) contest at Imperial
Valley College. The team is part of the MESA program at Cal State Fullerton.
“Our goal was to get to the state competition — and we’re
thrilled,” said Steve Nelson, the Costa Mesa’s MESA adviser for
10 years.
The competition required students to design and build a trebuchet (a
type of catapult with a sling on the end instead of a cup) that demonstrated
distance, accuracy and power, said Vonna Hammerschmitt, director of
Cal State Fullerton’s MESA program for students in 6th through 12th grade.
The rigorous contest also required student teams to prepare a technical
paper and academic display, as well as deliver an oral presentation.
“While the class meets for an hour a day, that was just the beginning,” Nelson
said. “These young men worked on their projects seven to eight hours
a day, often until late, day after day, night after night for three months.”
Costa Mesa High School seniors Ted Lee, left,
and Richard Kyo with their team’s winning trebuchet
at the recent at the Southern California Regional MESA (Mathematics,
Engineering and Science Achievement) competition.
The Costa Mesa High School 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.
The high school’s winning team members are Dorian Flores, Richard
Kyo, Ted Lee and Peter Pham, all seniors involved in MESA since their freshman
year. Other students in the MESA engineering class who assisted with the
project are senior Juan Dominguez and freshmen Andrew Fulkerson and Raymond
Lumantas. Fulkerson’s father assisted the team by lending the students
his welding equipment.
“It was like we won the Olympic medal,” said Pham, 17, who hopes
to attend Cal State Fullerton to study environmental engineering. “It’s
a big step for our school and for us as individuals.”
Dominguez, 18, who also wants to major in engineering at Cal State Fullerton,
said preparing for the competition gave him and his peers valuable hands-on
experience. “We had a lot of determination, and for us to be victorious,
feels very good. We worked hard and it was stressful at times, but it all
paid off in the end.”
Another MESA team from Costa Mesa High School placed second and a team
from Santa Ana High School placed third, Hammerschmitt said.
Flores and Kyo also won the first place trophy for Team Math Quest in
Calculus on the same day, a remarkable feat because their math team was
short-handed, Nelson said. Their opponents had three members on their teams.
If Costa Mesa High wins the Fresno contest next month, the students
will qualify for the June 29-30 national competition at the University
of Maryland. They would compete against teams from eight states.
Lee, 17, who also wants to pursue an engineering degree at Cal State
Fullerton, said the state competition will be challenging, but the team
will be ready. “If we continue to work day and night, I think we
have a good chance of going to the national competition.”
Added teammate Pham: “Our goal now is to go to the state and national
competitions — and win.”
Costa Mesa High School’s MESA engineering class has become a model
for five other school districts in the state and is recognized for its
innovative curriculum, Nelson said.
Cal State Fullerton’s MESA program
serves more than 1,400 students in six area high schools and eight intermediate
schools and offers a variety of services and activities to encourage students
to pursue degrees in math, science, engineering and computer science. An academic
enrichment program, MESA serves educationally disadvantaged students.