NEWS RELEASE                         February 19, 2009   

Kennewick high school students
win aircraft design competition

Four of the six winning Real World Design Challenge team members from Kennewick's Kamiakin High School hard at work on their project to design a more efficient aircraft wing. Shown here are Joshua Dunham, Senthuran Thevuthasan, T. Rhyker Benavidez, and Matt Gerboth.  They called themselves "Bernoulli’s Brainchild." (Photo courtesy of Terrance Casey)

OLYMPIA - A team of six students from Kamiakin High School in Kennewick put their engineering skills to the test to become Washington’s first winning team for the national 2008 Governor’s Real World Design Challenge competition for a more fuel-efficient aircraft design, Lt. Gov. Brad Owen announced today.

The team will now compete in the national completion with winners from other states on March 20 to 22 in Washington, D.C. Owen made the announcement before a business leadership group from the Tri Cities in Olympia to discuss local issues with legislators.

Lt. Governor Owen announced the Real World Design Challenge winners from Kamiakin High School in Kennewick to a group of business leaders from the Tri Cities in the Senate Rules Room on Feb. 19.

“I am pleased to report that this enthusiastic group of students from the Tri-Cities area can be counted among your best and brightest,” said Owen, whose office joined with the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction last fall to coordinate the state competition. 

“These students used critical thinking in science, math and technology to put together their winning project,” added Gov. Chris Gregoire. “They engaged in the kind of can-do spirit and teamwork that we like to celebrate among our high school students as they prepare for their futures.”  

In entering the nationwide completion sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, the team used sophisticated software to draw and test 20 to 30 wing designs.   With a goal to maximize lift and minimize drag, the team researched various aircraft types as well as the many design variables that could be changed within the software. They also examined the relationships of forces that go into flight.

The team from Kamiakin High included Donovan Casey (team leader), Joshua Dunham, T. Rhyker Benavidez, Chelsea Greenslitt, Senthuran Thevuthasan and Matt Gerboth.  They were advised by Jeff Young, a math teacher at the school, and coached by Terrance Casey, an architect with CKJT Architects, located in Kennewick.

After entering the completion last November the team underwent intensive training on use of the software, which was donated by the Parametric Technology Corporation and Mentor Graphics.  During the design process they collaborated with experts from the Federal Aviation Administration, the Department of Energy National Laboratories, industry and higher education.

 The team designated two students as their scientists, one as their mathematician, one as a design engineer, another as a simulations engineer and another as project communicator.

Roosevelt High School in Seattle and Trout Lake High School in Trout Lake also participated in the competition.

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More information about the contest

Media Contacts:  

Brian Dirks, director of communications (360) 786-7707 or dirks.brian@leg.wa.gov 

Lorraine Cooper, director, communications & public relations, Kennewick School District; 222-7424 or Lorraine.Cooper@ksd.org