JPL Annual Invention Challenge - 2019

On a pleasant day with no wind, the 2019 JPL Invention Challenge was held last Friday on the 180 Mall with more than 400 spectators and participants. This year’s contest objective was to create a device that can put up to 10 ping pong balls into a Mason jar located five meters away within the one minute time allotment. The winner was the team whose device placed the most ping pong balls into the jar.

A total of 21 school teams and 9 JPL teams came up with different ways to accomplish this task. Four of the JPL sponsored teams were from Ethiopia or Germany. One team came from Colorado. The device concepts were varied such as leaf blowers, shop vacuums, rotating wheels, catapults, and measuring tapes. The winning entry from Diamond Bar High School (Project Defying Gravity 2.0) placed 10 balls in the first round, 15 balls in the first tiebreaker, and 20 balls in the second tiebreaker for a perfect score!

My congratulations go out to everyone who worked on this challenging problem and a special thanks goes out to the four foreign teams that flew all the way in from Ethiopia and Germany.

In January, a series of photographs will be posted on the site.

I wish to thank all of the volunteers 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 Brian White for stepping in at the last minute to be the master of ceremonies during the contest.

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