Students ace
‘Hole-In-One’
contest at JPL
Students from 19 high school teams
across Southern California, as well as
NASA professionals, took part in a “Holein-One” contest in the Invention Challenge last month at NASA’s Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, in Pasadena, Calif.
The objective of the annual challenge
was to create a device that could propel or move a golf ball into a pyramidshaped target located about 5 feet (1.5
meters) away from the device. Only one
attempt was allowed, and the team that
completed the task in the fastest time
was crowned the winner.
Taking the top prize was Alexander
Hamilton High School, located in Los Angeles. They shot a hole-in-one in just 0.6
seconds.
Paul MacNeal of JPL created and produced the first Invention Challenge 16
years ago and has been running it ever
since.
“All students should be exposed to the
fun of engineering in this thought-provoking event,” said MacNeal. “Students learn
skills that are valuable, like brainstorming,
teamwork, scheduling, fabrication, failure
analysis and competitive design. When
they see real engineers having fun, they
can believe that engineering might make
for a good career goal.”
And while the Invention Challenge is
really for the kids, JPL employees are always encouraged to participate. This
year, 11 additional teams made up of
engineers and scientists from JPL competed for pure bragging rights. The JPL
winning team, consisting of Alan DeVault
and Scott Nolte, earned a time of 0.62
seconds, a hair slower than the winning
student team.
If you’re interested in getting the specs
on next year’s challenge, start checking
the Invention Challenge Web site in midAugust 2014 for details, at: http://www.jpl.
nasa.gov/events/inventionchallenge/.
The goal of this year’s Invention Challenge was to
build a device that could score a “hole-in-one” by
propelling or moving a golf ball into a pyramidshaped target. Thirty student and professional
Photos: NASA/JPL
teams entered the contest.
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