JPL Annual Invention Challenge - 2017
On a pleasant day (with virtually no wind), the 2017 JPL Invention Challenge was held on the 180 Mall with more than 350 spectators and participants. This year’s contest objective was to create a device that can put up to 10 wiffle balls into a plastic tub located six meters away within the one minute time allotment. The winner was the team whose device placed the most wiffle balls into the tub.
A total of 20 school teams and 7 JPL teams came up with different ways to accomplish this task. The device concepts were varied such as leaf blowers, surgical tubing, catapults, and cross-bows. The results are shown below for each team.
| Entry No. | School Name | Team Name | Number of Balls | Official Time | Results |
| 21 | Diamond Bar | Project DefyingGravity | 8 | 28.94 | Student - 1st and Most Unusual |
| 22 | South East High School | Cre8tive | 7 | 38.69 | Student - 2nd |
| 43 | Lawndale High School | The Lizards | 5 | 46.93 | Student - 3rd |
| 13 | Oakwood School | Baby Elephants | 5 | 50.19 | |
| 29 | Alexander Hamilton High School | The Allies | 5 | 60.84 | |
| 14 | Oakwood School | Giraffes | 4 | 55.93 | Heaviest (324.2 lbs) |
| 35 | Oxford Academy | Quantum Leap | 3 | 50.87 | |
| 104 | Austin DeShong | Garage Physics | 3 | 56.38 | JPL - 1st |
| 108 | Ethiopia Team 2 | LaunchETO | 2 | 32.87 | DQ - Device was too large |
| 6 | Santa Monica High School | TEAM AP | 2 | 35.93 | |
| 26 | Village Christian High School | VCS Engineering Team | 2 | 42.29 | Largest |
| 30 | Ramon C Cortines High School VAPA | INVENTONEERS | 2 | 46.01 | |
| 32 | Lakeside High School | Mad Scientist Club | 2 | 50.65 | |
| 39 | Temple City High School | TEAM B Mechanism | 2 | 51.57 | |
| 38 | Temple City High School | TEAM A Mechanism | 2 | 60 | |
| 54 | Los Angeles High School | IC Rainbow | 2 | 61.01 | |
| 4 | Diamond Bar | P.A.C.K.S. | 1 | 33.6 | |
| 44 | Lawndale High School | ZERO | 1 | 34.25 | |
| 40 | Temple City High School | TEAM C Mechanism | 1 | 35.95 | |
| 12 | New Village Girls Academy | Sisters of Science | 1 | 38.21 | |
| 41 | Heart of Los Angeles | HOLA Invention Team | 1 | 49.55 | |
| 107 | Ethiopia Team 1 | Golden Tulip | 1 | 49.74 | DQ - hand operated without hard stop; Smallest and Lightest |
| 103 | Richard Goldstein | Multi Wiffle | 0 | 1.42 | JPL - 2nd |
| 102 | Kristan Ellis | Thar She Blows | 0 | 21.45 | JPL - 3rd |
| 79 | Nobel Charter Middle School | Team Jupiter | 0 | 50.87 | Most Creative |
| 106 | Feza Boys’ Secondary School | Rafiki | 0 | 60 | Most Artistic |
| 105 | Gouri Butani | Botani Bolotin | 0 | 60.04 | |
| 27 | Alexander Hamilton High School | Bungo Chungus and the Hunky Chunks | No show - Transportation mishap | ||
| 109 | MEK (Turkey) | 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 250 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 and the foreign national escorts (Carmen, Ravita, Sherry, and Christine) that assisted the foreign national teams this year.
| Name | Position |
| Paul MacNeal | Organizer |
| Alessandro Buscicchio | General Helper |
| Carmen Tanielian | Assistant to organizer |
| Ravita Kartawinata | Assistant to organizer |
| Sherry Stukes | Assistant to organizer |
| Christine Walker | Assistant to organizer |
| Phoebe Rhodes-Wickett | Recording Secretary |
| Jared Stallings | Recording Secretary |
| Chris Landry | Referee |
| Robert Denise | Announcer |
| Lyn Repath-Martos | Check-in |
| Bernardo Lopez | Check-in |
| Vuong Phan | Check-in |
| Brian Lau | Check-in |
| Ezra Abrahami | Safety |
| Kristine Babaian | Safety |
| Kristen MacNeal | Timer |
| Sheila Murthy | Timer |
| Fannie Chen | Timer |
| Melissa Brown | Timer |
| Fabien Nicaise | Field Judge |
| Elham Maghsoudi | Field Judge |
| Paul Ries | Ball Retreiver |
| Rain Zhou | Ball Retreiver |
| Stephanie Zajac | Area Patroller |
| Perry Ramsey | Area Patroller |
| David Breda | Area Patroller |
| Dudee Chiang | Area Patroller |
| Joseph Joe | Set - up helper |
| Kim Sinclair | Set - up helper |
| Bill Frazier | Set - up helper |
| Genie Luzwick | Set - up helper |
| Dustin Lagoy | Clean-up Helper |
| Bryan Johnson | Photographer |
| Hannah Boykins | Photographer |
| Manan Ayra | Photographer |
| Jonathan Welsher | Videographer |
| Brad Smith | Judge |
| Shereef Surur | 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