MSJ Sophomores named CA State Winners of the Samsung “Solve for Tomorrow” Competition

The team will be competing in a pool of 50 teams to become a national finalist

By Sarah Hu & Amy Luo Sta Writers

On February 15, MSJ Sophomores Vedatman Duhoon, Siddharth Holtcamp, and Andrew Luo were named the CA State Winners of the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow Competition, winning $12,000 in Samsung technology and classroom supplies for MSJ and entering into the national phase of the contest. There, the team will be competing in a pool of 50 competitive teams representing each state in the US to claim the title of national fnalist.

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Solve for Tomorrow is a STEM sustainability competition for 6th-12th grade students centered on helping people in the communities and creating a positive impact through various STEM applications. Encouraging students to individually research, design, and propose an engineering-based solution to address real-word community problems, the nationwide competition receives thousands of projects each year.

Duhoon, Holtcamp, and Luo’s project is named Aerodynamic and Viable Intercity Op- erational Navigation-Drone (Avion), a novel unmanned aerial vehicle that provides emergency medication delivery to metropolitan areas facing frequent road congestion. While brainstorming ideas for their project, the team prioritized problems that were relevant and applicable to the local community. “Traffc congestion is an issue rampant throughout Fremont, the Bay Area, and other local metropolitan areas, and in emergency medical situations this can limit access to essential care,” Holtcamp said. “By delivering medical supplies with a drone, not only can we limit waste emissions made by ambulances, but we can also make healthcare more effcient.” of traditional academic boundaries, step out of the classroom, and solve real world problems. “[This competition] has a very strong application to real life; it can make students feel empowered when they can see a problem and actually start doing something about it,” Kuei said.

Because the competition focuses more on the teams’ proposal and marketing pitch for their potential solution, the project prioritizes theoretical aspects of the product rather than a physical model. Regardless, the MSJ team built upon existing studies to incorporate several engineering design strategies within their project. “We [researched] how birds can become more energy-effcient by morphing the center of mass upon their wings and mimicked this natural phenomenon within our design,” Luo said.

The competition also offers valuable funding for the MSJ Science Department. According to Kuei, with last year’s winnings, the Science Department was able to purchase a brain -computer interface for students to use in their science fair projects. “With $12,000 [from this year’s winnings,] we can probably get a gas chromatograph, and I mean, how many high schools have that?” Kuei said.

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Beginning their project in late September, the team worked under the mentorship of Chemistry of the Earth Systems Honors Teacher Katy Kuei, who led the previous year’s MSJ team to become State Winners as well. Kuei hoped her students could break the limitations

For the national phase of the competition, the MSJ team is working to produce a video pitch explaining Avion to a panel of judges at Samsung. If selected as a national fnalist on April 15, Avion will have the opportunity to participate in national voting, in which any US resident over the age of 13 will be able to vote for the project on social media. “We’re hoping to improve our project and hone in on the achievability of our design. We’ve been able to gain invaluable skills through this experience, and we’re excited for what’s to come,” Duhoon said. ▪