Amelia Beagle ’25, Katalin Somogie ’25, Sriram Pattabiraman ’24, Isaac Shimamoto ‘25, and Chloe Golladay ‘24 at High School Design. (The Barstow School)
The upper school Engineering Club competed in a high school design competition hosted by the University of Kansas School of Engineering in October. The competition, High School Design, poses student-created engineering challenges. These include mechanical, civil, chemical, and computer science engineering challenges. High schoolers work individually or in teams to create and present designs that solve said challenges.
High School Design allows engineering students to exercise their creativity and technical knowledge in a competitive environment. By participating, students can gain a better understanding of the engineering discipline and participate in an immersive experience. The Self Engineering Leadership Fellows (SELF) Program of KU that sponsors the competition also awards $12,000 in scholarships to event winners.
Because of these great opportunities, High School Design is very competitive, with more than 300 students competing. Last year, Barstow’s Engineering Design and Robotics class actually participated in the competition as well. The class was not offered this year, so the student-led Engineering Club took the initiative to register for the competition.
Somogie and Pattabiraman working on their design. (The Barstow School)
The club sent two teams to the competition. The civil engineering team consisted of Amelia Beagle ‘25, Chloe Golladay ‘24, and Isaac Shimamoto ‘25. The mechanical engineering team consisted of Katalin Somogie ‘25 and Sriram Pattabiraman ‘24.
The civil engineering team was tasked with designing a sustainable communal living plan for humans to live on Mars in the future. The team created a building prototype that could house many people and withstand substantial weight. Not only was the group graded on the structure’s durability and aesthetics but also on how well they presented their design.
The mechanical engineering team had to create a device that would simulate a hydraulic lifting mechanism. The goal was to design a machine that would lift as much weight as high as possible. Similar to the civil engineering rubric, the team was graded on their presentation and design skills.
Somogie noted that they and Paterban made a great team since both of them can hyperfocus. This meant that they could concentrate wholly on their design challenge during the competition without getting distracted.
Hyper-focusing clearly worked in the team’s favor as Somogie and Paterban took first. This meant a lot to Somogie, the Engineering Club president and founder.
“The major thing that I took away from the competition was that if you put your mind to it, you can do anything,” Somogie remarked. “I started a brand-new club this year, got us to the competition entirely student-led, without teacher involvement except for transportation, and one of our teams won the division!”
Indeed, the competition is proof of how far the club has come in just its first year. The club members not only have an aptitude for engineering but also are very driven and have strong organizational skills. They hold regular meetings and were able to use that time in the weeks prior to the competition to plan their design. With hardworking and driven students, the Engineering Club has a bright future. If you are interested in engineering or joining the club, contact Somogie for more information!
