Now in its 26th year, the event brings teams of middle and high school students to the lab to compete with home-built contraptions.<\/p>\n
Teenagers wielding power tools and plywood demonstrated their engineering prowess at the annual Invention Challenge at NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California on Friday. Also in evidence: lots of small motors, 3D-printed gears, PVC pipe, and duct tape.<\/p>\n
First held at JPL in 1998, the event pits middle and high school teams against each other as they try to get handmade devices to accomplish a task that changes annually. For this year\u2019s challenge, dubbed the \u201cBucket Brigade Contest,\u201d teams needed to create devices capable of moving about 2 gallons (8 liters) of water from a holding reservoir into a bucket about 16 feet (5 meters) away in 60 seconds while satisfying a long list of rules<\/a>.<\/p>\n In all, 18 teams of students from middle and high schools across Los Angeles and Orange counties competed. First place went to Arcadia High School\u2019s Team Still Water, which completed the task in just 6.45 seconds. Mission Viejo High\u2019s Team Senior Citizens was close behind, finishing in 6.71 seconds. The Samo Seals of Santa Monica High came in third, at 9.18 seconds.<\/p>\n Five teams from outside the area \u2014 four from schools in Colorado and Massachusetts and one involving professional engineers \u2014 were invited to compete as well. Of those, the team led by retired JPL engineer Alan DeVault\u2019s Team \u201cTrial and Error Engineering\u201d came in first (a repeat from last year). And \u201cTeam 6\u201d from Pioneer Charter School of Science in the Boston area took second place (also a repeat performance from 2024). No team qualified for third place.<\/p>\n Judges named Team Clankers from Mission Viejo High most artistic, Team 6 from Pioneer Charter School of Science most unusual, and Team Winning Engineering Team (WET) from Temple City High most creative.<\/p>\n The event was supported by dozens of volunteers from JPL staff. JPL Fire Chief Dave Dollarhide, familiar with a bucket brigade, was a guest judge.<\/p>\n