JPL Annual Invention Challenge - 2015
On a pleasant sunny day, the 2015 JPL Invention Challenge was held last Friday on the 180 Mall with more than 250 spectators and participants. This year’s contest objective was to create a device that can launch three balls at a target and achieve the most amount of points.
A total of 21 school teams and 2 JPL teams came up with different ways to accomplish this task. The energy sources were varied such as counter-rotating wheels, leaf blowers, surgical tubing, springs, and gravity. The results are shown below for each team.
My congratulations go out to everyone who worked on attempting to solve this challenging problem.
| Entry No. | JPL/School Name | Team Name | Device Name | Score | Award |
| 38 | Los Angeles High School | IC Fuego | IC Fuego | 90 + 40 | School - 1st |
| 39 | Los Angeles High School | Diamond | Diamond | 90 + 20 | School - 2nd |
| 12 | Lawndale High School | MVPCDD | Baller | 70 + 60 | School - 3rd |
| 42 | Crescenta Valley High School | Falkon’s | 70 + 40 | ||
| 25 | Temple City High School | Amazon | The Cannon | 60 | |
| 5 | Arcadia High School | Absolute Value C | 60 | ||
| 61 | Alexander Hamilton High School | The Utopians | 60 | ||
| 43 | Oakwood School | Oakwood School | 50 | Heaviest Entry | |
| 62 | Alexander Hamilton High School | The Galaxians | The Galaxians | 50 | Most Artistic |
| 37 | Los Angeles High School | Bomb Squad | Bomb Squad | 40 | |
| 13 | Lawndale High School | MESA Cardinals | Trump | 40 | |
| 10 | Culver City High School | Team Kato | Team Kato | 40 | |
| 77 | Summit Collegiate Academy | Wonder & Garbonzo Engineering | Summit Collegiate Academy | 30 | Most Creative |
| 46 | Morningside High School | Trajectory8 | Trajectory8 | 30 | |
| 64 | Oxford Academy | Quantum Leap | GR8 Overtime | 30 | Most Unusual |
| 102 | Cleary Wong | Cleary Wong | Happy 18 | 30 | JPL - 1st |
| 75 | Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies (LACES) | LACES Unicorns | 20 | ||
| 60 | Alexander Hamilton High School | Heroes and Zeros | Heroes and Zeros | 20 | |
| 30 | Sycamore Junior High School | BUCCY | BUCCY | 20 | |
| 28 | STEM Academy of Boyle Heights | The Strokes | Ballzilla | 0 | |
| 7 | Great Oak High School | The Identified Flying Objects | Murphy’s Law | 0 | |
| 101 | Richard Goldstein | Goldsteins | Bouncing Matilda | 0 | JPL - 2nd Lightest and Smallest Entry |
| 6 | Village Christian High School | VCS Engineering | #1 Crus8ers | 0 | Largest Entry |
| 103 | Jagmit Sandhu | Sandhu | Three Stages | Withdrew |
I wish to thank all of the volunteers (listed below) that put on the show. Without their help, the event would not have been possible. A special thanks goes out to Kim Lievense and her Public Services team, headed by Roni Dash, for collecting the entry forms and video release forms and processing more than 200 student badges for all of the student teams. I also wish to acknowledge the talented work performed by Robert Denise for being the master of ceremonies during the contest.
| Name | Position |
| Paul MacNeal | Organizer |
| Alexa Ditonto | General Helper |
| David Breda | Assistant to organizer |
| Lisa Seymour | Assistant to organizer |
| Sherry Stukes | Recording Secretary |
| Natalie Rezek | Recording Secretary |
| Chris Landry | Referee |
| Robert Denise | Announcer |
| Natalie Rezek | Badging Helper |
| Steven Wissler | Check-in |
| Genie Luzwick | Check-in |
| Ronnie Forster | Check-in |
| Lyn Repath-Martos | Check-in |
| Nvart Iskandaryan | Safety |
| Kristine Babaian | Safety |
| Ezra Abrahamy | Safety |
| Nagin Cox | Timer |
| Kristan Ellis | Field Judge |
| Fabien Nicaise | Field Judge |
| Anusha Yarlagadda | Ball Retriever |
| Emily Schneider | Ball Retriever |
| Marcin Witek | Ball Retriever |
| Kristen MacNeal | Ball Retriever |
| Naomi Volain | Area Patroller |
| Andres Andrade | Area Patroller |
| Mieszko Salamon | Area Patroller |
| Bill Badboy | Area Patroller |
| Mary Ellen Derro | Area Patroller |
| Joseph Joe | Set - up helper |
| Kristan Ellis | Set - up helper |
| Kristen MacNeal | Set - up helper |
| Perry Ramsey | Set - up helper |
| Homer Hummel | Clean-up helper |
| Asad Aboobaker | Photographer |
| Chris Hovsepian | Photographer |
| David Tuman | Photographer |
| Qi Chen | Videographer |
| Steve Nelson | Judge |
| Madilynn Weant | Judge |
Contact Information
Public Services Office
4800 Oak Grove Drive
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Mail Stop 126-347
Located in Building 126-336
Pasadena, CA 91109
Paul MacNeal
paul.d.macneal@jpl.nasa.gov
Phone: (818) 354-7824