Eisenhower team's machine earns all-time high score at Fluid Challenge, will be displayed at national trade show in March

This March, thousands of people from around the country will see the machine built by a team of Eisenhower eighth-graders for the National Fluid Power Association (NFPA) 2016 Fluid Power Challenge event at Harper College. The device, which the team spent about six weeks researching, designing and building, earned the all-time high score for that particular Challenge event in October. A replica will be showcased at Deltrol's booth at the triennial International Fluid Power Exposition trade show in Las Vegas.

Deltrol, the sponsor of the Fluid Power Challenge at Harper, will reverse-engineer an emulation of the Eisenhower team's winning machine, recreate it with 3-D printed parts, and connect it to a computer so that it continually replicates the machine's movement of objects at the Fluid Power Challenge. A two-minute video of the team's performance at the Challenge will also be running on a loop, said Bob Hammond of Deltrol. Attendance at the 2014 trade show was just over 125,000, and more people are expected to attend in 2017.

The NFPA Fluid Power Challenge is a skills-based competition that challenges eighth-grade students to solve a real life engineering problem using fluid power (hydraulics and pneumatics). The event kicks off with a Workshop Day, at which teams come together to learn about fluid power, start working on basic machines that rotate and lift objects, and receive their Challenge kits. Over the next six weeks the teams use their kits, including tools and supplies, to work on the challenge problem, develop a portfolio and build a prototype. On the Challenge Day, teams return with their tools to recreate their unique machines and test them. Teams are judged on their portfolio, team design, teamwork and total machine points.

Five teams of District 54 students received awards at this year's Challenge at Harper College, in which teams were tasked with building a machine that would pick up a block and move it to another level. In addition to the Eisenhower team being honored as the Champion, a Lincoln Prairie team won Best Machine Performance, a Mead team won Best Portfolio, a Keller team won Best Design, and another Keller team won Best Teamwork. All were recognized at the November 17 School Board meeting.

The Eisenhower champion team of Anna Zawistowski, Jimit Gosar, Ahmar Khan and Hetaxi Patel spent hours at the Schaumburg Township District Library researching concepts and constructing three prototypes, each with variations, to determine which design would work best for the Challenge. Jimit built a cube with the same dimensions and size as the cube that would be moved in the challenge so they could conduct accurate tests of their device early on. In week two, the students were already using a test platform that is normally deployed near the end of the preparations. The team worked so hard, they had to ask for a new saw partway through, said teacher Tim Yung, who has sponsored the Fluid Challenge Club at Eisenhower since Deltrol launched the Challenge in 2008.

"This team was amazing to watch," he said. "They built multiple prototypes and made adjustments on their own initiative - it was awesome."

Team members said that while they were nervous on the day of the competition because "anything can go wrong," they were also confident because they had practiced so much. In addition to testing and retesting their final design, they had decided prior to the competition who would be responsible for which tasks - Jimit and Ahmar would work on the ladder, while Hetaxi and Anna would build the base. Their efforts paid off.

"The team was like clockwork," Hammond said.

The team reconstructed their device in two hours, which gave them ample time to test it.

"We had to reposition it at the last minute so we could stay within the box we were given," Hetaxi said.

Hearing their team announced as the event champion was "extremely exciting," Ahmar said. The Challenge was a great experience, Jimit added; in addition to participating in the competition itself, the students also got to meet engineers.