Cooper hewitt national high school design competition

National Finalist, 2nd Place - 2017, 2nd Place - 2021, Top 3 - 2022

Rostam Reifschneider '17 was named one of three Finalists. Shortly before graduating he was flown to Boston for a networking event and later to New York City to pitch his idea to a panel of judges. 

Allison Casey ‘24 was named one of three Finalists in the 2021 Contest - “Create a Healthier World”. Allison’s idea was to reduce barriers and access to COVID-19 vaccines in underserved communities.

Sohan Chunduru ‘22 developed a collaborative story telling platform called “Whale Tales” to encourage students to build stories cross-culturally.

National Honorable Mention, Top 15 - 2018, Top 15 - 2021

Sydney Strawn '20 and Leah Weiser '20 were named Honorable Mentions (Top 15) in the 2018 'All Access'-themed competition.

Akaash Doshi ‘23 was named an Honorable Mention in the 2021 Contest - “Create a Healthier World”. Akaash’s product aimed to reduce touching of door handles.

 
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design for san diego - d4sd

Winner - 2024, Danny Breise, Ariana Ludwig & Rafaella Timmermann

Personal Lockers for the Unhoused proposed a new storage system for San Diego’s unhoused population to keep their valuables and key documents safe from theft and destruction. In addition to monetary and emotional connections to valuables, the loss of documents can set people back for months on the search for jobs and housing.

Award for Illustrating the Design Process - 2020, Malia Acol ‘20

SunShun is a wearable UV tracking bracelet and app that is designed to help prevent skin cancer for people living active lifestyles.

Award for High Potential Impact - 2020, Ken Lew ‘20

PARCEL is a proposed service for equitable distribution of groceries and resources during times of crises.

Finalist - 2017, Staff

The Design & Innovation staff entered the Design For San Diego Civic Challenge put on by the UC San Diego Design Lab and the City of San Diego. Their entry, in the area of Improving Accessibility & Mobility Impairments, involved automatic rental kiosks for beach wheelchairs and walkers. They were named a Finalist and were invited to work with David Graham, Deputy Chief Operating Officer, City of San Diego, to implement their solution.

 

2024 Congressional App Challenge CA-50

Matthew DuBois and Luke Graham were named winners of the Congressional App Challenge, an annual competition run by the U.S. House of Representatives. Their project, CheckPoint Student, is a hardware and software solution to student presence confirmation on campus.

 

Upverter PCB Competition

Honorable Mention - 2022, Nano Goldman, Sohan Chunduru, Jake Needle, Daniel Pons & Eric Yang

Upverter, the education branch of Altium, created a contest that required students to solve a local environmental problem with an Arduino-connected PCB. This student group designed a custom PCB to identify non-native plants via computer vision in order to predict coastal cliff erosion.

 
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MakerBot + Thingiverse Prototyping Challenge

Winner - 2020, John Guckian

John Guckian ‘23 was selected as the winner of the MakerBot Thingiverse Design Prototyping Challenge. The competition asked students to 3D model a product that would help students organize their desks while learning from home. John used advanced 3D modeling concepts to create a modular design with a clamp to fit multiple desks. John shared his winning design with engineers from MakerBot on a webinar event.

 
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Innovators Of Tomorrow Contest

Winner - 2020, Nano Goldman

Nano Goldman ’22 was selected as a winner of the Innovators of Tomorrow contest sponsored by Scholastic. The contest challenges students to conceptualize, describe and diagram a new invention that solves a problem using advanced manufacturing.

Nano created a new way to reinforce concrete by using a triangular, carbon-fiber mesh in place of conventional steel rebar. Carbon-fiber is stronger than steel, rust-resistant and provides strength to concrete to maintain stability while leaving a small carbon footprint over time. Nano took advantage of the freedom and flexibility of the contest guidelines to further explore his interests with carbon fiber to create an invention that solves a real-world problem.

 
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Startup Weekend edu

3rd Place - 2016

Wendi Kan '18, Mark Endo '18, and Asst. Head of School for Design & Innovation Matt Abbondanzio participated in StartupWeekend San Diego in the Education realm. Working long hours over the course of three days, their group came up with an idea to connect exchange students with other people their age, prior to starting an exchange program. This would prepare these foreign students for the cultural transition. The team was named a Finalist and took 3rd place—even while competing against professionals!

 

Diamond Challenge for high school entrepreneurs

National Finalist, 2nd Place - 2016

National Semi-Finalist - 2017

For two consecutive years, our students were Top-5 Finalists in the Diamond Challenge.

In the 2016 competition, a group created a plan for a business around Polar Solis, a windshield that adjusts based on brightness to combat glare.

In the 2017 competition, a group worked on NyoCell, a headband embedded with an accelerometer to track head impact and concussions in youth athletes.

 
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media coverage of 'the HYDRONE'

The Hydrone, a class project from 2015-16, was featured on a news segment as well as on websites such as SportTechie and Vocativ.

 
 
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