TSA - HS

As a senior in high school, I competed in the PA TSA State CAD Engineering competition, and placed 2nd overall, qualifying for nationals. In this competition, we were provided 3 part drawings, and asked to model the parts shown in 3D before recreating the drawings from our model. For this competition, I used Autodesk Fusion 360. The competition was timed, and judged based on the amount of work completed in the 3 hours given and the quality of that work.

The Technology Student Association is a national organization that hosts STEM competitions at the national, state, and regional levels. School chapters of middle and high school students compete in a wide range of individual and team events, ranging from programming to model bridge construction to fashion design. In the 2021-22 school year, I was the president of the York Suburban High School chapter of the TSA. As president I worked with our advisor to coordinate the clubs activites, competitions, and fundraisers, as well as helping guide some of the newer members as they completed their competition projects.

I also competed in the Flight Endurance competition, where participants build lightweight rubber band powered airplanes designed to stay airborne as long as possible while adhering to the weight and size constraints. The plane I built weighted 9 grams, and could fly for roughly 90 seconds before running out of power. It’s difficult to convey just how light these aircraft look and feel, and they are quite difficult to build well. Because there is no control input to the planes, they must be tuned to climb gradually at the beginning - when the rubber band provides the most power - but not so much that they strike the roof. The plane must also be tuned to circle slowely to avoid hitting the walls of the room, which is challenging as the turn radius will vary depending not just on the tuning of the plane, but also the amount of power it’s producing and any air currents it runs through.