Full of drive and passion for automotive engineering, four middle school students from Colegio Americano de Mexicali took first place in the global 2016 Student Automotive Design Challenge (SADC), sponsored by Honeywell and SAE International.
The team of Alejando Mungaray, 12; Daniela Urrea, 12; Valeria Hernandez, 13; and Adrian Perez, 12, created their “Make It Up” toy car company during two months of classroom activities. Their project used an alien space theme to align with their demographic research on what a target audience would want in a toy car. The special curriculum emphasizes math, science, technology, social studies and language arts in order to research, design, market and engineer a functioning electric gear-driven toy car that must meet performance standards.
The competition was led by teachers from Colegio Americano de Mexicali and assisted by Honeywell employee volunteers. Honeywell’s SADC is now in its eighth year and was comprised of more than 150 students in seven schools from five countries.
“We are very proud of our team for what they accomplished. To win is a great honor for these bright students. Honeywell’s expert help enabled our students the chance to apply their theoretical knowledge of these subjects in practice – and they enjoyed every moment of it,” said Graciela Ramos, principal of Colegio Americano de Mexicali.
The “Make It Up” team competed against winners advancing from local competitions in the United States, Czech Republic, Mexico, China and France. All of the teams constructed a video of their project that was then reviewed by Honeywell employees and other external audiences in an online voting process. The winning team has been recognized by Honeywell throughout its global operations and will be hosted for a trip to an industry attraction linked to math, science or automotive technology later this year.
“Our employees are always excited by the opportunity to work with talented young students in our communities and then see their final projects get global recognition from Honeywell,” said Craig Balis, Honeywell Transportation Systems chief technology officer. “We hope that all the students enjoyed the experience to the point of perhaps leading them to pursue math and science with even greater interest. I like to think that these can be the first steps toward creating the next generation of engineering talent for companies like Honeywell to employ in the future.”
The SADC Challenge is a co-sponsored program between Honeywell and SAE International, in which small groups of middle school students ages 11 to 14 employ a multi-disciplinary curriculum into the development of their final project. During the six to eight week in-class school curriculum, the students are connected to Honeywell volunteers, who mentor and guide them through this process, giving the students an opportunity to connect and engage with the automotive industry.
For more information, visit the Honeywell SADC Challenge Facebook page here.
