“The JPL Annual Invention Challenge” competition held annually by NASA took place in Dudullu Campus of Doğuş University this year. The concept was “Miniature Castles” and 30 schools and science hobbyists joined. In this competition whose organization and sponsorship were undertaken by Özdisan Elektronik, the teams which had the highest scores after five shots won the awards upon the jury assessment.
Invention Challenge competition, held by JPL NASA in US for secondary school students, took place in Dudullu Campus of Doğuş University with the participation of 30 schools and science hobbyists. In the competition whose organization and sponsorship were undertaken by Özdisan Elektronik, the teams who had the highest scores after five shots won the awards upon the jury assessment.
Aiming at making students lively experience that the science is pleasant and fun and love it, this competition is based on contemplating a problem and challenging schools and students to design the best device to solve the problem. Then, the schools compete their devices in a festive environment and those ranking as first, second or third in the competition are determined through measurement.
This year’s concept was “Miniature Castles” and the most creative, most extraordinary, most artistic, the smallest and lightest designs were given plaques and awards. Çevre College ranked as first, TED İstanbul College ranked as second and İSÖV Dinçkök Vocational and Technical Anatolian Highschool ranked as third at the end of the competition. Paul MacNeal, the Organizator of the competition from NASA, uttered these words: “In 1998 I started the JPL Invention Challenge as an opportunity to let the
JPL Engineers have some fun just before the Holiday break in December. Little did I know how popular the event would be amongst the JPL employees and eventually all the wonderful participation from student teams throughout Southern California. To date over 10,000 students have participated in our 22 year history of running the JPL Invention Challenge and that does not include the teams that have participated in the Istanbul Invention Challenge. My reason for holding this event is to show students that engineering is fun and rewarding. Seeing the students that get to the finals at JPL, they are amazed at the prospect for one day becoming an engineer just like the engineers that participate in our challenge. One of our five mission goals at JPL is to “Inspire the Next Generation of Engineers”. I think this contest does that and also helps students see the benefits of hard work, teamwork, and collaboration. I wish to thank everyone that has participated in our contest in the past and I hope that all participants will seek to keep the drive of being curious and inventive forever.”
