June 11, 2021 - Engineering students from Canyon Lake High School won three awards in a national competition which challenged them to re-engineer a “Power Wheels Jeep” into an autonomous vehicle.
The CLHS team received the Engineering Award, the Execution Excellence Award and second place in Virtual Performance for its entry in the Autonomous Innovative Vehicle Design Challenge. Team members include Angilina Abolos, a ninth-grade student; Pierce Heller, a 12th-grade student; James Lalonde, a 12th-grade student; and Dalton Stanley, an 11th-grade student. They were coached by Patrick Fallin, who teaches engineering and robotics at CLHS.
This challenge was part of the 2021 Square One Innovative Vehicle Design (IVD) Competition which took place May 18-19 at Kettering University in Michigan with in-person and virtual participants. The CLHS team was among the 17 virtual teams who competed in the STEM-focused challenge with 21 in-person teams competing.
“Each entry was judged on the engineering disciplines utilized, understanding of vehicle engineering principles, engineering processes, decision making and curation of artifacts,” explained Fallin, who incorporated the competition into his principles of engineering, and engineering math classes.
“Interested students could also get involved through the Engineering/Robotics Club, but this year all of the students were in one of the classes and completed 90 percent of the work during class time,” he said.
Square One is a Michigan-based educational organization and non-profit focused on developing talent for the future workforce. It strives to empower teachers and students with hands-on learning experiences around high-quality STEM projects in partnership with higher education institutions, industry organizations and more.
Congratulations!
-Canyon Lake High School seniors pictured from left, James Lalonde and Pierce Heller, were part of the engineering team which won three awards for its autonomous vehicle in a national competition. Other members not pictured include Angilina Abolos and Dalton Stanley.