300 students vie for $20K at UMaine competition
Courtesy / Advanced Structures and Composites Center, University of Maine
Windstorm Challenge 2016 winning team Falmouth High School A6. Left to right: Falmouth High School teacher Kim Blenk, team members, and Dr. Habib Dagher, executive director of the UMaine Advanced Structures and
Composites Center.
The last time Mainebiz checked in with students at King Middle School’s “makerspace” in Portland, students were hard at work constructing model wind turbines in advance of the annual Maine Windstorm and Wind Blade Challenge competitions hosted at the University of Maine on May 20.
Now, as the dust — and wind — has settled, congratulations are in order, as students at King Middle School came in second place at the Windstorm Challenge, behind Falmouth High School in the fourth annual competition.
"It was inspiring to see the creativity of these Maine students and, without doubt, Maine composites companies are looking forward to them joining our workforce," Steve Von Vogt, managing director of the Maine Composites Alliance, which was a partner in the challenge, said in a statement.
As part of the competition, student teams across the state designed and built scale-model floating wind turbines and delivered a sales pitch-style presentation to a panel of UMaine and industry judges. The students’ models were then tested under extreme wind and wave conditions at the university’s wind-wave simulator.
The team with the most stable platform and strongest presentation was selected as the winner. Members of the winning team were offered internships valued at more than $20,000 at the UMaine Composites Center, contingent upon enrollment at the university.
The winners of both competitions were:
Windstorm Challenge 2016
1st Place: Falmouth High School Team A6
2nd Place: King Middle School Team B18
3rd Place: Caribou Middle School Team B2
Maine Composites Alliance' 8th Annual Wind Blade Challenge 2016
1st Place: Bangor High School Team 1
2nd Place: Freeport High School
3rd Place: Lewiston High School Team 4
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Learning beyond the classroom at King Middle School's makerspace
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