ORONO, Maine — Around 800 Maine students and their teachers competed in the 11th Annual Simmons Windstorm Challenge at the University of Maine on Friday, putting their engineering skills to the test.
One hundred teams designed and constructed floating platforms for model wind turbines.
“You build it, you test it, you see how it does,” Parker Liba, a student at Medway Middle School, said.
Students’ designs were tested in the Advanced Structures and Composites Center’s wind-wave simulation basin.
The floats were judged by engineers based on performance, design, and a brief oral presentation. The winning high school team members earn guaranteed internships in UMaine’s Offshore Wind Lab if they choose to go there for college.
Students experienced many emotions as they put their designs they worked on for months into the simulation basin.
“Anxiety but also excitement,” Sunny Hafford, a student at Medway Middle School, said.
For many, not everything went according to plan.
“We were nervous because it was swinging a bit more than we thought,” Somerset Career & Technical Center student Nicolas Rodriguez said.
Despite some nerves, students remained confident in their designs. Medway Middle School crafted their float like a sailboat.
“The keel is gonna work to keep it steady,” student Landon Thibeault said.
Somerset Career & Technical Center used a gyroscope design and utilized a 3D printer to make their model.
“The main goal behind this was to get as much weight as low as possible on the windmill, to sort of stabilize it,” student Tyler said.
Both teams’ floats made successful voyages, staying balances against the waves.
“It looked like it was gonna do bad at first, but then at the end it was doing pretty good,” Thibeault said.
Somerset Career & Technical Center teammate Anthony Alberico said their math worked out.
“Just seeing it out there in action, it was amazing, it was a very delightful experience,” he said.
The challenge provided a fun and interactive way for students to strengthen their engineering skills and prepare for their future careers.
“It’s an opportunity to really enrich their education in ways that are otherwise not possible,” Habib Dagher, director of the Advanced Structures and Composites Center, said.
Dagher said that offshore wind is Maine’s biggest untapped resource, and these students are helping to change the future of energy.
“These are the leaders who will take these technologies and implement them in the next decade or so in our society,” he said.
Students got valuable hands-on experience to take with them into careers in renewable energy.
“It was great. I’m really honestly just thankful for the opportunity,” Hafford said.
Alberico added, “Any future engineers that would want to do anything like this, I would recommend this.”
The winning middle school team was Penobscot Christian School. The winning high school team to receive the big prize was Bucksport High School.