JPL Annual Invention Challenge - 2016
On a blustery sunny day, the 2016 JPL Invention Challenge was held last Friday on the 180 Mall with more than 300 spectators and participants. This year's contest objective was to create a device that could transport water and a goldfish in a plastic cup to a water vessel located 2 meters away. The winning team would be the team that accomplished this task in the fastest time.
A total of 20 school teams and 7 JPL teams came up with different ways to accomplish this task. The energy sources were varied such as bungee cords, electric motors, surgical tubing, springs, and gravity. The results are shown below for each team.
| Entry No. | JPL/School Name | Team Name | Run Time (seconds) | Water Transferred (grams) | Award |
| 15 | Oakwood School | Oakwood #1 | 2.59 | 240 | School - 1st |
| 16 | Oakwood School | Oakwood #2 | 2.82 | 234 | School - 2nd |
| 30 | Los Angeles High School | Dynamic Nonagon | 3.35 | 236 | School - 3rd |
| 17 | Oakwood School | Oakwood #3 | 3.7 | 236 | |
| 34 | Hamilton High School | The Utopians | 4 | 234 | Most Unusual |
| 29 | Los Angeles High School | Diamond | 6.27 | 230 | |
| 33 | Hamilton High School | Hero’s and Zeros | 2.92 | 224 | |
| 105 | Alan DeVault | Splash-O-Matic | 2.65 | 216 | JPL - 1st |
| 111 | Johannes Gross | Flying Squirrel | 3.2 | 224 | JPL - 2nd |
| 109 | Kristan Ellis | Good to the Last Drop | 4.06 | 216 | JPL - 3rd |
| 9 | Chaparral Middle School | Mission Possible | 3.27 | 224 | Most Creative |
| 25 | Lawndale High School | N.E.R.D.S. | 4.54 | 218 | |
| 32 | Hamilton High School | The Galaxians | 4.88 | 210 | Heaviest |
| 11 | Village Christian High School | VCS Engineering Team | 5.23 | 218 | |
| 28 | Temple City High School | Team Rocket | 5.33 | 222 | |
| 3 | Arcadia High School | Absolute Value C | 11.01 | 218 | |
| 24 | Lawndale High School | Alpha | 16.68 | 212 | |
| 14 | Walter Reed Middle School | The Wolves II | 9.06 | 182 | |
| 72 | Hesby Oaks Leadership Charter | Hesby Oaks 1 | 21.06 | 201 | Lightest |
| 23 | Lawndale High School | Mesa Bardinals | 6.42 | 172 | |
| 26 | Temple City High School | Team Student | 3.89 | 202 | |
| 46 | Culver City High School | Team Peter | 5.34 | <170 | |
| 70 | Lakeside High School | Mad Scientist Club - Attimi Ma | 8.1 | 28 | Most Artistic |
| 103 | Gouri Butani | The Water Bobsters | Did not finish | ||
| 106 | Trent Mathison | LMUASMA | Did not Run | Largest | |
| 107 | Kim Aaron | Bucket Brigade | 5.87 | 154 | Smallest |
| 108 | Dogan Aykurt | Feza Boys HS | Did not Finish | ||
| 101 | Jose Guzman | No show | |||
| 110 | Beylikduzu College | No show |
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 Kim Johansen, for collecting the entry forms and video release forms and processing more than 230 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 |
| Amanda Garvis | General Helper |
| Nancy Torres | Assistant to organizer |
| Fannie Chen | Assistant to organizer |
| Sherry Stukes | Recording Secretary |
| Chris Landry | Referee |
| Robert Denise | Announcer |
| Lyn Repath-Martos | Check-in |
| Steven Wissler | Check-in |
| Genie Luzwick | Check-in |
| Nvart Iskandaryan | Safety |
| Kristine Babaian | Safety |
| Melissa Brown | Timer |
| Jerry Martinez | Timer |
| Perry Ramsey | Timer |
| Micah Jackson | Timer |
| Patti Aubuchon | Field Judge |
| Elham Maghsoudi | Field Judge |
| Ken Hurst | Water Filler |
| Phoebe Rhodes | Water Filler |
| Kyle Edelberg | Area Patroller |
| May Tran | Area Patroller |
| Jules Lee | Area Patroller |
| David Tseng | Area Patroller |
| Ryan Mizusaki | Area Patroller |
| Joseph Joe | Set - up helper |
| Leslie Mullen | Set - up helper |
| Mumin Khan | Set - up helper |
| Matt Gentile | Clean-up helper |
| Diana Ly | Photographer |
| Russell Smith | Photographer |
| Manan Ayra | Photographer |
| Tomas Koponen | Videographer |
| Steve Nelson | 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