Bay Area Students Battle Mother Nature: The Tech Challenge 2023 Takes on Extreme Weather with "Survive the Storm" Theme, Featuring Inventive Structures Designed to Protect Against High Winds

Jun 07, 2023

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01 May, 2023, 18:24 ET

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Over 2,000 students participated in this year's challenge for the 36th Annual youth engineering design program geared towards solving a real-world problem.

SAN JOSE, Calif., May 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Tech, announced the results of their 36th Annual youth engineering design program — The Tech Challenge, presented by Amazon.

How can we engineer protections against severe weather events? It's a question engineers are thinking about more and more, and a question that thousands of promising young engineers took on at The Tech Challenge: Survive the Storm, on April 29 and 30. This year, students designed structures that could protect vulnerable objects from the wind. Teams spent months optimizing their designs, documenting their process in engineering journals and working together to build a solution.

"At The Tech, we always hope to inspire a passion for problem solving in young people. This year's Tech Challenge showed thousands of students that the real problems they see in their neighborhoods or on the news are within their ability to address," said Katrina Stevens, President and CEO of The Tech.

The Tech Challenge, a signature program of The Tech, invites teams of students in Grades 4–12 to use the engineering design process to solve a problem related to the real world. It reinforces 21st-century skills including creativity, problem-solving, design, teamwork, leadership, perseverance and learning from failure.

This year The Tech Challenge is working with two schools in Kenya, Tech Challenge alumni Shiven Patel and his mother Shital Patel to engage more than 750 students in a past Tech Challenge. Helping Shiven are fellow students, Ian Pearce and Tobias Mikkelsen. Lions Primary School and Melvin Jones Lions Academy in Nakuru, Kenya will host the program including a showcase event on June 24.

"When given the opportunity young people are inspired to solve big, challenging problems," said Abby Longcor, Senior Director of The Tech Challenge. "We've had teams participate from other countries before, but to bring the program to a new country to students who've never had access to engineering before is really special."

You can find a list of all 2023 award winners here: thetech.org/core-programs/the-tech-challenge/2023-award-winners/

To watch a recap of the showcase weekend, visit: thetech.org/thetechchallenge

The Tech Challenge would not be possible without the enduring support of hundreds of educators. This year's Bob Grimm Award for an Extraordinary Educator was given to Carl Erickson from Buchser Middle School. The award is named after a long-time Tech Challenge champion Bob Grimm, who was a stalwart supporter of providing STEM education resources for all.

The Tech Challenge presenting sponsor is Amazon; the communications partner is Zoom; with additional support from Adobe, Barbara and Bill Heil, eBay, Inc., Intel, KLA Foundation, Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., Accenture, Arm, Deloitte Foundation, EY, Ford Motor Company, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP, Google, Hitachi, Marvell, Mayfield, ON Semiconductor Foundation, Qatalyst, Seagate, and Synaptics.

For more information visit The Tech Challenge website: thetech.org/thetechchallenge.

SOURCE The Tech Interactive