STEM Challenge draws 29 teams to UHCL competition

April 19, 2017 | Krishani Abeysekera

Twenty-nine teams of 112 science, technology, engineering and mathematics students from area high schools, colleges and universities vied for scholarships, internships, quadcopters and other prizes at STEM Challenge 2017, hosted April 8 at University of Houston-Clear Lake. Two sponsoring companies invited nine students to apply for internships.

Organizers said the event was its largest annual competition to date. The Bridges to STEM Careers program began the conference in 2014. The BSC program – a partnership between UHCL and San Jacinto College, supported in part by the National Science Foundation and a Pathway to STEM Careers grant –  focuses on engaging activities to draw students’ interest to STEM and to show them how they can pursue STEM careers.

The challenge was open to all high school and undergraduate college students. It consisted of two levels of competition – beginner and advanced – with all teams displaying their capabilities in several areas ranging from creative, engineering design, math to software design abilities.  Nineteen beginner teams and 10 advanced teams registered. Each team consisted of a maximum of four members.

All challenges were inspired by STEM subjects and designed in a way that allowed students to participate and succeed.

“The goals of the STEM Challenge were manifold: from encouraging students to try STEM fields, to recognizing that STEM fields can be fun, to taking away the fear of failure in a STEM field,” said Krishani Abeysekera, senior lecturer of Computer Science in UHCL’s College of Science and Engineering. 

Clear Lake High School’s Falconauts – Jonathan Dinh, William Zhang, Shanjeev Kukaruban and Arunan Thiviyanathan – placed first in the beginner category. UHCL’s Team Zero Knowledge Proof – Jonathan Goodman, Jesse Lira, Tatyana Royer and Benjamin Martinez – took first in the advanced category. Each member of both teams went home with a $500 scholarship to UHCL and an Amazon Echo Dot.

Station Master status was awarded to teams in three challenges:

• Math: UHCL’s 10’000 Monty’s team – Sarah Cao, Andrew Nash, Madison Brewer and Sarah Koller.
• Engineering design: UHCL’s Return to Sleep team – Cody Farlow, Reid Del, Ilyas Khurshid and Sharmin Rahman.
• Software design: Clear Lake High School’s The Wizards team – Patrick Edelen, Rahul Yesantharao and William Jeang.

Each winner received $300 scholarship to UHCL and a quadcopter.

The UHCL Alumni Association, Esyntaxis Corp., Management Controls Inc., and Flow-Cal Inc. provided sponsorships for STEM Challenge 2017. Internships were provided by AtLink Communications Inc. and Tietronix Software Inc.  Breakfast was donated by Panera Bread. Lunch was provided at a concession rate by Freebirds Inc. Additional support was provided by various other companies and restaurants in the community. Faculty members from community colleges, high schools and UHCL participated actively and served as judges, mentors and in various other capacities. Industry representatives from Flow-Cal, AtLink and Tietronix also served as judges.

Representatives from AtLinks and Tietronix watched the teams and members as they participated in the challenges. At the end of the event, they identified students that they liked to intern in their company. Tietronix invited Sarah Cao, Tatyana Royer, Joel Godinez, Andrew Nash, Kul Sapktoa and Paul Taplett to interview for internship positions, and AtLinks offer internship positions to William Zhang, Paul Taplett, Josh Holland and Ethan Dickey.

AtLinks and Tietronix provide IT management, web services, gamification, augmented reality and 3-D visualization technology.

Area vendors and restaurants provided various door prizes, including 2-terabyte solid-state external drives, flash drives, gift cars to area restaurants and UHCL memorabilia.

For more information on the College of Science and Engineering, visit www.uhcl.edu/science-engineering.