Volume LI, No. 7

Page 1

MISSION SAN JOSE HIGH SCHOOL

VOL. 51, NO. 7

March 24, 2016

41717 PALM AVENUE, FREMONT, CA 94539

MSJ teams selected as Summit Diplomats in Conrad Challenge Four teams qualify for the Spirit of Innovation Summit By Ashley Chang & Bindhu Swaminathan Staff Writers Several MSJ teams were selected as Summit Diplomats in the Conrad Spirit of Innovation Challenge and are invited to the Spirit of Innovation Summit at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida from April 20 to 24. The Conrad Spirit of Innovation Challenge promotes innovation and an entrepreneurial spirit by encouraging students to create products that target global issues. Teams submit portfolios regarding research on their product, and those who receive high scores are chosen as Summit Diplomats. The team Avenir, which consists of Juniors Jessika Baral, Kate Lin, Jeffrey Liu, and Stephen Tian, produced the Congenital Heart Abnormality Detector. “Playing to our team’s interests and strengths in biomed and computer science, we knew we wanted to develop some sort of software in the field of bioinformatics,” said Lin. The detector uses color doppler echocardiography, which utilizes ultrasound to examine the heart and blood vessels, to detect a congenital heart disorder and calculate its severity. It then compiles all of the information into a patient profile. Though the team has decided not to attend the Spirit of Innovation Summit, they hope that hospitals around the world can use their software to improve the accuracy of the disorder diagnoses in the future.

German exchange students visit MSJ By Chloe Velasquez Staff Writer Students from Otto-Hahn-Gymnasium in Göttingen, Germany, visited MSJ as part of the German Cultural Exchange Program on March 11. As a welcome to the community, ASB hosted a luncheon for the exchange students in N7 the day they arrived. The German Cultural Exchange Program was founded at MSJ under the auspices of the Fulbright Commission after Ethnic Studies Teacher Risha Krishna participated in the Fulbright Program to Germany in 2010. “Since Germany is such a large part of the content in state standards for world history, I really wanted to travel there myself to experience these major historical sights and see what I could bring back to the classroom for my students,” she said. Since her visit, Krishna and Math Teacher Charlie Brucker have led this reciprocity program, which occurs every other year. MSJ’s partner school for this program is Otto-Hahn-Gymnasium, which is similar to MSJ in terms of academic achievement and focus. Gymnasium takes place from grades five to 13, which is the equivalent to junior high and high school in the US. Over the past summer, MSJ Seniors Samantha Bernstein, Dominic Melville, Shivam Parikh, Neha Shah, Mohini Vaidya, Chloe Velasquez, Lucas Williams, and Courtney Yu, and Juniors Ella Chen, Isis Chu, Sarah Deng, and Sayan Ghosh, participated in the German Cultural Exchange Program. The MSJ students lived with their Ger-

Sophomore Carolyn Ge and Freshman Jonathan Ko, under the team name Novus, created Pluvia, a device that attaches to showerheads and alerts the user when the water reaches the right temperature. “We knew pretty early on that our project would have something to do with water conservation, as the California drought is one of the biggest threats facing our state,” said Ko. The duo will decide whether they will go to the Spirit of Innovation Summit when the Challenge sends out travel information. The team DARC 9 is composed of Sophomores David Hou, Andrew Kan, Robert Lin, and Crystal Su, and their product is the HKSL Drone Evasion System. They had first envisioned their product to be a free, software package that people could download to allow drones with cameras to move around obstacles. However, they settled on making a more feasible drone evasion simulation that can supply the drone with a suggested path and how long it will take. DARC 9 will not be attending the Spirit of Innovation Summit. The team TENDDD, consisting of Freshman Vinit Majmudar and Sophomore Ayush Gaggar, created the Safe Driving Wheel, a steering wheel cover that has a movement tracker, a heart rate tracker, and a hand placement tracker. These components aim to curb dangerous, drunk, and distracted driving. “After being personally affected by a drunk driver, we wanted to make the world man exchange partners in Göttingen and visited various other German cities, including Heidelberg and Berlin, from June 11 to 24, 2015. This month, these MSJ students are welcoming their German exchange partners to their homes from March 11 to 25. The participating Otto-Hahn students were Franziska Fangmeier, Malte Gerland, Jannik Hartmann, Vivienne Heise, Lina Herbig, Moritz Knaak, Helen Lafère, Maira Mühlberg, Laura Schult, Alena Siebert, Marie-Theres Kerl, and Philipp Unger. The ASB luncheon was the first of several activities planned for the Otto-Hahn students. At the luncheon, ASB served Mexican cuisine to expose the Otto-Hahn students to foods unique to their culture. Krishna gave a short speech, formally welcoming the Otto-Hahn students and discussing her excitement for their two-week visit. Leadership Teacher Ben Breazeale also gave a warm welcome, explaining the Leadership course and his duties on-campus. “I’m looking forward to learning more about the American culture and also improving my

staff writer bindhu swaminathan

Top left: Team TENDDD: Freshman Vinit Majmudar, Sophomore Ayush Gaggar. Bottom left: Team Novus: Freshman Jonathan Ko, Sophomore Carolyn Ge. Top right: Team DARC 9: Sopomores Andrew Kan, David Hou, Robert Lin, and Crystal Su. Bottom right: Team Avenir: Juniors Jessika Baral, Kate Lin, Stephen Tian, and Jeffrey Liu.

a safer place for young kids with bright and likeminded imaginations,” said Majmudar. The team will be attending the Spirit of Innovation Summit and hopes to place first. Winners of this challenge have gone on to pat-

ent their inventions and receive international acclaim for their products. “[The] Conrad Spirit of Innovation Challenge,” says the official website, “will be the leader in connecting students and mentors to develop world changing solutions.” ▪

English,” said Hartmann at the ASB luncheon. On March 15, the MSJ students gave their exchange partners a tour around San Francisco, walking them through iconic places such as Coit Tower and Fisherman’s Wharf. Both the MSJ and OttoHahn students even attended a Golden State Warriors home game the day after, preceding a visit that the Otto-Hahn students took to Googleplex, the corporate headquarters of Google, in Mountain View. Other activities included a visit to Alcatraz, Monterey, and Yosemite. On the last day of the Otto-Hahn students’ trip, the MSJ students threw a farewell party to honor the relationships they built with their exchange partners over the months. Krishna said, “The goal of the Fulbright Commission is to build international relationships and share cultures across borders.” Krishna is pleased with the outcome of the cultural exchange program and looks forward to the upcoming exchange trip scheduled to occur during the summer of 2017. ▪

Larsen named 4th best high school principal in CA By Anu Asokan Staff Writer Mometrix Test Preparation, a private company, recently ranked Principal Zack Larsen fourth on its list “The 30 Most Influential California High School Principals.” The list was created based on data regarding awards won by MSJ, school rankings, test scores, and more. In recognition of this accomplishment, the Smoke Signal asked Larsen about his experiences so far and his goals for the coming years.

Smoke Signal: What were your goals

when you first became a principal? Larsen: When I first became a principal, I wanted to unite the staff [and] build trust and camaraderie among all the staff on campus. [I also wanted to] ensure that students felt that it was a safe school to attend, that their voices mattered, and that learning was engaging and relevant for all levels of learners, whether someone was taking college prep or honors or Advanced Placement courses. SS: Do you think you’ve succeeded with those goals? Larsen: We’ve made progress. I don’t think I can say all the boxes can be checked off and

Otto-Hahn-Gymnasium students with MSJ students as part of the German Cultural Exchange program.

SCIENCE OLYMPIAD

MSJ team places first in regionals, and will advance to the state competition.

new computers installed in library

Read about the new iMacs which were recently installed in MSJ’s library.

INTERVIEWS WITH NEW ASB OFFICERS

Check out what next year’s ASB officers have in store for MSJ!

courtesy tracy mao

See LARSEN NEWS Page 2

FOR MORE COVERAGE,

VISIT www.THESMOKESIGNAL.ORG


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Volume LI, No. 7 by The Smoke Signal - Issuu