On April 5, 2019, Options For Youth (OFY) and Opportunities For Learning (OFL) held their annual Engineering Design Challenge at the DoubleTree Hotel in Monrovia. Students who competed at the event won school-site and regional competitions and advanced to the finals with their teammates. 110 contestants had two hours to work on a space-themed mission where their knowledge and innovation in science and engineering were put to the test.
Teams had to design and build a functional makeshift rover that was meant to go out and retrieve a broken rover. Students had to imagine themselves in an uncharted terrain in a newly discovered planet, Phoenix, where they had to use spare parts from their downed spacecraft to engineer a makeshift rover. The event boasted the largest student turnout working on the most challenging task to date.
Judges selected their top three teams based on their rover’s speed, distance, time, and resilience. An award ceremony followed after judges selected the top three teams and their runner-ups. The top two teams got Kindle Fires, and the team in third place received an Amazon Gift Card. OFL San Gabriel Valley placed first (Alexander Moran, Kaylyn Doyle, Ketzali Ortega); OFY Acton placed second (Humberto Chuc, Cody Hoefferle, Nathan Roach); and OFY Victorville placed third (Joceline Felix, Jasmine Diaz, Issac Garcia). This annual competition allows OFY and OFL students to build their interest and exposure in the STEM fields while also participating in extracurricular activities for colleges.
