The Martha's Vineyard Times

High school students rain confetti to win engineering challenge

January 30, 2013

Photo courtesy of Ruda Stone

Michael Schroeder, Kyle Joba-Woodruff, and Jack O' Malley (left to right) assemble their winning confetti blaster.

Martha's Vineyard Regional High School students have the opportunity each month to compete in a design challenge and accumulate points with the goal of capturing a grand prize in the spring.

The January project challenge was to build a confetti launcher, with a single trigger, that resulted in the widest spread of launched confetti. Distance was measured to determine the winners.

The first-place team, with a confetti spread of 443 cm, was made up of Kyle Joba-Woodruff, Jack O'Malley, and Michael Schroeder.

Second-place team honors went to (confetti separated by 254 cm) Galen Mayhew, Kevin Montambault, and Peter Ruimerman

Third place (confetti separated by 227 cm) went to Lucan Amarins, Willoe Maynard, and Sophie Ulyatt.