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Two Howard County School Teams Receive 1st Place Honors in State-Level MESA Competitions

May 14th, 2015

Teams from two Howard County schools have earned 1st place in the state-level Maryland State Mathematics Engineering Science Achievement (MESA) competitions held Thursday, May 7, 2015. The event was hosted at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory’s Kossiakoff Center in Laurel, Maryland.

The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory’s Maryland MESA program identifies and supports Grades 3–8 students statewide to prepare them for college majors in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics.

Swarna Velumani, Varsha Velumani, Kiana Wambi, and Nile Rankin-Watson from Lake Elkhorn Middle School earned 1st place in the middle school Prosthetic Arm category. Their school advisor is Mr. Shawn Gatz.

From Long Reach High School, Alex Gliese, Daniel Kozlowski, and Ben Eapen, were the 1st place Prosthetic Arm High School State winners. Their school advisor is Ms. Erin Radebe.

The Prosthetic Arm Challenge involves the development of a low-cost prosthetic device that must complete a set of pre-defined tasks. Teams were challenged to build a device that could be used to complete daily tasks in school and at play.

The Lake Elkhorn Middle School and Long Reach High School teams will represent Maryland at the MESA national competitions, which will take place in Ogden, Utah at Weber State University from June 17–20.

For more information, visit http://www.jhuapl.edu/mesa/home/default.asp.