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High school teams from Mankato and Chisago Lakes have earned top honors in the statewide Engineering Design Competition.

Ben Schwartz and Dani Gleason, from Mankato East High School, earned first place recognition for their work to design an automated process for laying out the lines on athletic fields to saving time and money for grounds crews.  A team of four from Chisago Lakes High school, made up of Emma Schlidgen, Jack Dong, Mitch Scanlan, and Derek Frank, took second place honors with its design of a tool to remove weed fragments that line lake shorelines and if left unchecked can negatively affect the biochemistry of the lake.

Sponsored by Haldeman Homme Inc. (HHI), St. Cloud State University Project Lead the Way, the St. Cloud State Department of Environmental and Technological Studies and the Wisconsin Innovation Service Center, the competition rewards outstanding student projects and highlights the importance of engineering design and problem-solving in STEM education.  

The first place team was awarded a $2,000 prize and the second place team a $1,000 prize.  The fee for an extensive new product assessment research by the Wisconsin Innovation Service Center — a division of the Small Business Development Centers of America — for both projects will be funded by the competition sponsors as well. Each student and their teachers also earn commendation letters through the competition.

Now in its second year, HHI/St. Cloud State Engineering Design Competition attracted 35 teams with 143 students from across the state.  The competition is open to any Minnesota high school student in grades 9-12. Student teams follow the steps of Engineering Design Process and document their work on a free tool developed by educators from the Project Lead The Way organization called the Innovation Portal. Through the portal students and mentors can collaborate and receive feedback and once completed, students can enter their project right through the Innovation Portal.

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