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Aeronautical Dolphins fly to DC to defend RWDC title
The Aeronautical Dolphins are flying to Washington, D.C. to defend their title as the 2013 National Real World Design Challenge winners. They leave today for the national competition that will take place on Nov. 16.
In April, the Dolphins won the state RWDC competition, beating out other teams from the CNMI and Guam. America Samoa did not compete this year.
The Real World Design Challenge Pacific state winner is the Aeronautical Dolphins from Marianas High School. Back row, from left: Jun Young Kim, Mobtasim Alam, Esther Choi, and teacher/coach John Raulerson. Front row, from left: MHS principal Cherlyn Cabrera, Jessica Bigueras, Regina Go, and Roselie Agulto. Not in picture is Jill Ann Arada, currently in college, who will join the team for the competition in Washington D.C. (Contributed Photo)
The winning team members are Jill Ann Arada, Jessica Bigueras, Alam Mobtasim, Jun Young Kim, Regina Go, Roselie Agulto, and Esther Choi. Their coach is MHS teacher John Raulerson.
Arada and Bigueras won $50,000 in college scholarships for winning last year. Arada, who is in college now, will be joining the team in D.C.
MHS has won the RWDC Pacific Region title in the last three years.
Each year, students are asked to address a real-time problem confronting the nation’s industries. This year’s challenge focused on the design and implementation of an unmanned aircraft system to support precision agriculture to monitor and assess crop conditions to achieve increased yield.
The MHS team’s state winner and potential national champion design is called the “Hawkeye 670.”
Earlier, Raulerson said the “Hawkeye” has more capability than last year’s winning design. The design has jet-engine technology, multi-flight controls, among other features, he said.
“It can hover, it can rotate on a vertical axis, it can balance itself on a lateral axis. I think it’s going be a really good aircraft,” Raulerson had said.
Teams use a systems engineering design and integration approach to identify, compare, analyze, demonstrate, and defend the most appropriate component combinations, subsystem designs, operational methods, and business case to support the year’s challenge scenario.
