The WHHS engineering club has been working to make their first year a great success. On Saturday, January 16th, WHHS physics teacher Erika Sherger led eight students at the NJAAPT 2016 Physics Olympics at Monmouth Regional High School in Monmouth, New Jersey. WHHS students Carlos Ayala, Noah Choe, Sophia Jeon, Divya Yagnamurthy, Dan Kang, Alyssa Olivieri, Nicki Jariwala, and Hima Tallam competed against 42 other teams in 6 events: Fermi Questions, the Cantilever, Bernoulli Ball, the Egg Drop, the Collapsing Tower, and the Zero Impact Vehicle.
Sherger, the advisor of the engineering club explained “What we did was practice each challenge on a specific day and we competed against each other. We then sent the best of our designs to Monmouth last Saturday. We didn’t win big at the competition, but we put an impressive amount of points up for our first try in all 6 events.”
WHHS senior and engineering club member Hima Tallam described the contest as a place where “unlike most academic contests where you sit and take tests, in this contest, you actually get to actively demonstrate your work to judges and watch others show off their techniques as well.” Engineering club president and WHHS senior Divya Yagnamurthy explained “There were six different events in the physics olympics, and we brought a team of 6 people [and two additional spectators] so that one person represents each event.”
WHHS is proud to support the engineering club and all of their accomplishments. The club hopes to continue to succeed at their events in the future.