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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.

View event photos
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

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