Ingenious students rise to Tech Challenge

The Bunny Wrenches' tall, pink, faux-fur-trimmed bunny ears shrieked teenage girls. But the four gal pals' elegantly designed and executed remote-controlled vehicles commandingly communicated science and engineering nerds.

At the Tech Museum of Innovation's 18th annual Tech Challenge student design competition, held Saturday in downtown San Jose, being a girl and a nerd was a good thing.

It used to be that boys vastly outnumbered girls at the design-and-build event, but this year and last, girls accounted for about 45 percent of the competitors. Saturday's challenge -- a race against the clock -- followed months of preparation and weeks of trials so the young designers could learn from their mistakes.

The brainiacs who came to the Tech from elementary, middle and high schools proved a basic engineering maxim: The 238 teams showed that there are 238 different solutions to the same problem.

In this case, the problem was to design and build a mechanical device that could pick up a water balloon from the edge of fake Lake Grimm, get over three wooden berms and deliver the balloon -- aerially or by traveling up a ramp with a hairpin turn -- to a raging fake wildfire a couple of feet above the lake. Each team had three minutes.

``The great part is seeing that science can be fun and working in teams can be fun,'' said Ted Vucurevich, chief technology officer for Cadence Design Systems, an event sponsor. And at this challenge, failure is good, meriting one of the most coveted prizes: the most-spectacular failure award. Failure often results in the best innovation, said Ray Bingham, chairman of Cadence's board.

Most teams have been working diligently since March to come up with a project and execute it, documenting the process.

Unfortunately for Team Pizza, from Hillview Middle School in Menlo Park, completing its elaborate balsa and plywood crane required pulling an all-nighter. The project was running behind schedule because it had to be re-engineered midway through to make it lighter and more powerful. Plus there was a little procrastination.

In the end, Team Pizza's design solutions were foiled when a clip broke and a crane wouldn't lift. But team member Chris Kelvie, 14, saved the day, grabbing the crane and tipping and thrusting to get the water to the fire -- with one second to spare.

Viva La Tech, an all-girls team from Castilleja School in Palo Alto, also went back to the drawing board after its big-wheeled vehicle almost toppled off the ramp during a recent trial. Team members decided to replace the wheels with sturdy treads. The new approach definitely was an improvement, said Sara Colvin, but the team ran into trouble when a tread fell off and the team ran over time.

Instead of being upset, the girls tried it again. ``We wanted to prove not just to the judges, but to ourselves, that it would work,'' Sara said.

The Bunny Wrenches, who mostly hail from Egan Junior High School in Los Altos, came with two remote-controlled devices they custom-designed for the task. One is a light, nimble vehicle, nicknamed Cottontail, and the other a heavy transport with a ramp, a.k.a. Jackrabbit, which can carry Cottontail over difficult terrain.

The Wrenches agreed they learned a lot and had plenty of fun putting things they had learned in the classroom to practical use.

``I liked using the blowtorch and the power tools,'' said team member Amber Lombard, 13.

``I liked learning all the mechanics. This was fun and new,'' said Tara Filsaf, 13.

``I liked the whole experience,'' said Arushi Goel, 12. ``You got to apply your knowledge.''

``When we operate our project, we're all doing something really important, working in cooperation,'' explained Sarah Loebner, 12, the team captain.

Although the Bunny Wrenches' vehicles performed beautifully, they did not beat the clock, bedeviled by dead batteries. But they won effusive praise from the judges.

``This was one of the best pieces of machinery we've seen today,'' said judge Tony James. Said Rich Turner, director of engineering for the Tech: ``What they did was fantastic problem-solving, having two different devices. They did a great job.''