The IHA Applied Engineering Club placed second and third for two different categories at Destination Imagination, an engineering competition held in Basking Ridge, NJ, on Saturday, March 12^th.

The club had two teams compete in the competition. The first participated in the Meme Event. The challenge required the girls to invent a meaningful meme, develop a metaphor for that meme, and film a related video.

The team, composed of Marissa Amen ’18, Riley DeRosa ’18, Hannah Gunning ’19, Kristen Kjetsaa ’18, Emily Koehne ’18, and Eilis McLaughlin ’18, came up with a meme centered on the idea of women helping women advance in STEM careers. They used a rock wall as a metaphor for a career path and filmed a video of the girls climbing at “The Gravity Vault,” a rock wall facility.

The team placed third for the secondary level Meme Event. They were awarded certificates and a trophy.

The second team participated in Musical Mashup. This challenge asked the team to design and build a creative instrument and perform a musical solo and skit with that instrument. The instrument was tested for strength with the placement of weights on top of it, leading to its destruction.

The team, composed of Elizabeth Becz ’18, Kaitlyn Brown ’19, Rebecca Coronel ’16, Sofia Hanson ’18, Olivia Najaar ’19, and Alexa Trubiano ’19, created a “flarp.” This is a cross between a flute and harp. They performed a silent skit based on the percussion play “Stomp.” The skit included a violin duet and dance number.

The team placed second for the secondary level Musical Mashup. Along with their trophy and certificates, the team was given an invitation to Global Finals. Global Finals are to be held from May 25 – 28 in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Both teams also participated in the Instant Challenge. This is a challenge that is unknown to the team members until they enter the competition room.

The competition came after much hard work from both teams says Kaitlyn Bertolino ‘18, President of Applied Engineering. The teams met multiple times a week in preparation for the competition.

Bertolino says, “The effort and time they put into the projects was evident in their presentations.”

By Kaitlyn Brown ‘19, Staff Writer