March 9, 2022

USCHS team earns top honors at STEAM competition

An Upper St. Clair High School team finished first in the 2022 STEAM competition on Friday, March 4, 2022, at Shaler Area High School. Thirty-three local high school teams competed in the event, sponsored by the Shaler Area Education Foundation.

Members of the top team – Delta-V – include Damodara Gummadi, Nikita Redkin, Patrick Nowak, Maksym Devlysh and Evan Sarkett. The team also placed second in a floatation device challenge.

USCHS team Axolotls – consisting of Ansh Goyal, Paige Kline, Susan Liu, Priyanka Palayekar and Anisha Patel – took third place in the decoding challenge and finished 11th overall. 

“Both teams did an amazing job working together to accomplish complex tasks,” Tracy Smith, USCHS physics and robotics teacher, said. “They demonstrated determination and resilience throughout the day.”

The competition tasked teams with creating a device to launch a team-designed dart 20 feet, 40 feet, and maximum distance. In addition to the creation of the launcher and execution of the launches, teams were required to submit mathematical calculations, cost analysis and two progress reports. Students also competed in four different spontaneous STEAM-oriented challenges throughout the day. 

“It was a great experience seeing them compete and all their hard work come together in a winning effort,” Seth Williams, USCHS technology education teacher, said. “The students were immediately asking if there were other competitions they could join!”