Spruce Mountain and Caribou capture Kleinschmidt Windstorm Challenge; Orono Wins Maine Wind Blade Challenge
Members of victorious teams to be offered internships at Composites Center worth $20,000
ORONO, Maine — More than 350 middle and high school students participated in the Kleinschmidt Windstorm Challenge and the 10th Annual Maine Wind Blade Challenge on May 18 in the Harold Alfond W2 Ocean Engineering Laboratory at the University of Maine Advanced Structures and Composites Center.
Spruce Mountain High School’s Gyro Boys captured the Kleinschmidt Windstorm High School Challenge, while Bangor High School’s Team 5 took second and Machias High School’s Team Yellow earned third.
In the Kleinschmidt Windstorm Challenge Middle School Division, the Caribou Middle School Wave Runners were tops, Brewer Community School’s Dream Team took second and Caribou Middle School’s Northern Breeze placed third.
Orono High School Team 1 won the 10th Annual Maine Wind Blade Challenge. Bangor High School Team 1 placed second and Orono High School Team 5 took third.
Members of the winning high school teams are offered internship opportunities at the UMaine Composites Center, valued more than $20,000, contingent upon enrollment at UMaine.
“We were pleased to present Maine students with these two truly hands-on STEM experiences that immerses them in energy research inside our 100,000-square-foot laboratory to help spark the next generation of engineers, scientists, entrepreneurs and job creators for Maine and for the United States,” said Habib Dagher, executive director of the UMaine Advanced Structures and Composites Center.
“We’re confident that some of Maine’s best future engineers, scientists and entrepreneurs were here today, and our goal is to inspire them to create opportunities in our state.”
In the Kleinschmidt Windstorm Challenge, teams of middle and high school students collaborated to design and construct a scale-model floating wind turbine platform, then tested the design under wind and wave conditions, and delivered a sales pitch-style presentation to a panel of judges.
Keith Martin, senior engineer at Kleinschmidt Associates, congratulated all the participants. “These students have developed clever solutions to a complex problem with both technical challenges and economic considerations,” he said.
“We trust they had some fun in the meantime, and hope this challenge engages the minds of the future scientists and engineers.”
Jon Christensen, CEO of Kleinschmidt, which provides engineering, regulatory and environmental consulting services to energy companies and government agencies across North America, said the company proudly supports the challenge that “inspires Maine students to consider careers where they create solutions to our world’s most challenging problems.”
The 10th Annual Maine Wind Blade Challenge is a program of the Maine Composites Alliance and the Maine Ocean and Wind Industry Initiative.This challenge connected teams of middle- and high-school students with composites companies to construct and infuse a functional set of wind blades.
Each Wind Blade Challenge team’s goal was to manufacture an assembly that would generate the most energy in 3 minutes or fewer. Each team also gave a presentation on its design and innovation processes.
“It was inspiring to see the creativity of these Maine students and, without a doubt, Maine composites companies are looking forward to them joining our workforce,” said Steve Von Vogt, managing director of the Maine Composites Alliance.