Kittatinny technology students win 10 trophies at state conference

Newton - Technology students at Kittatinny Regional High School entered into 14 competitive events at the Technology Student Association state conference at The College of New Jersey on April 4, and brought home 10 trophies from eight events. The Kittatinny student won four first-place awards, four second-place awards and two third-place awards. First-place trophies went to Jared Harpell, Denis Cook, Josh Gibson, and Marco Chomut. This is the first year of the competition for junior Harpell, who designed a recreation center for young children and presented a poster of his solution in the CAD Architectural 2D event. In CAD Engineering 2D, Denis Cook designed a multi-use table and presented a poster of his solution. Denis is a senior who has won awards at previous state competitions, and has also represented Kittatinny with high honors at national competitions. Senior Marco Chomut earned his first-place trophy in the CAD Animation Engineering competition, designing a theme ride for an “adventure” park. Chomut also took second place in CAD Engineering 2D by designing a multi-use table and presenting a poster of his solution. He has distinguished himself in previous years, representing Kittatinny with high honors at several Technology Student Association national competitions. First-place winner Josh Gibson had to design a multi-purpose entertainment facility for day use and night use in the CAD Animation Architectural event. In developing the animation to depict how the use could be changed, he had to employ several software programs to achieve the final 15-second video. Gibson also teamed with Nick Campbell for the Technology Challenge, where they took second place, building a contraption to have a ball travel from point A to point B in 90 seconds. Their effort got them to 87 seconds and a second-place finish. Campbell is the president of Kittatinny’s chapter of the association and, although he has competed previously, this was his first trophy. Aubrey Lynch, a newcomer to the group, took second place in the CAD Architectural 2D event. A sophomore and first-time participant at state competitions, Lynch had to design a recreation center for young children and present a poster of her solution. The team of Jesse Colucci and Joe Corleto took home a second-place trophy in the Electric Research and Experimentation event. They designed and built an electronic device and display board outlining their process. Their idea was an in-line combination switch that would not allow power to a device if the proper combination was not used. The device could be used to stop power to a kitchen stove if small children were present. Colucci and Corleto are both seniors. This was the first time they competed in a statewide association event. Third-place winners in the Architectural Model event, Darby Macaulay and Christie Pazdzierski, designed and built a quarter-inch scale model of a retirement home for an older couple who were downsizing into a 1,600 square foot home. Both Pazdzierski and Macaulay are juniors; this was their first attempt at architectural model building. Freshman Gary Fox had to compete on-site, at which time he had to write a report on a topic that wasn’t selected until competitors arrived at the conference. This was his first state event and he earned a third-place trophy. Fred Fogle and Doug Carnegie, Technology Student Association advisors at the school, said they look forward to traveling with their students for the national competitions in June in Dallas.