A group of gifted students rode their McDowell County Landmark Express Railway to a first-place finish in the Youth Category of the Design Challenge during the 11th annual West Virginia Makes Festival Nov. 8 on the Huntington campus of Marshall University.
Using a variety of technology ranging from 3D printing, audio-visuals, sensors and aerial drones, the 5th-8th grade students created an interactive display that featured a train that travels the track showcasing various McDowell landmarks and explains the history and significance of each. For their efforts, the students were awarded the $500 top prize. It was their first time participating in, and their second time attending, the festival, presented annually by the Marshall Advanced Manufacturing Center (MAMC).
Another student group – a trio of teens from the Putnam Career & Technical Center – captured the grand prize in the adult category for its Better Thank Butter Technologies. The group’s manipulative learning device assists culinary students in their learning and memorization of traditional measurements of butter, enabling them to more easily estimate measurements from a larger, one-pound block of butter. The students won $3,000 for their creation.
Other Design Challenge winners were:
Adult Category
Second Place ($1,000 prize) – Darrell Fuller of Beckley for his One Touch Weed Control, a unique applicator to apply herbicide with surgical precision to a few unwanted plants without harming adjacent vegetation.
Third Place ($500 prize) – Marshall University engineering student Tanner Foster of Teays Valley for his Nerf Blasters, an array of custom and modified toy guns he built using 3D printing and electronics technology.
Youth Category
Second Place ($250 prize) – P.A.R.T.s (Putnam Area Robotics Team), a group of 8th through 12-grade Putnam County students, for an elaborate competition robot the team built and programmed to perform various functions, including picking up and tossing rings. The robot is part of the students’ entry in the NASA FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC), which focuses on ideas that lead to the creation of functioning mechanical devices.
Third Place ($150) – Ethan Coleman, a student at Winfield High School and Putnam Career & Technical Center, for realistic Star Wars props he created using 3D printing and electronics.
The Design Challenge is the centerpiece of the West Virginia Makes Festival, presented each fall by MAMC to celebrate, encourage and reward creativity as well as ingenuity and innovation in all forms by individuals of all ages.
Nov. 26, 2024
