Frost Students are Finalists and Winners at TSA Conference

When the awards were called out on Saturday morning at the TSA conference, Frost students joined other FCPS students on the stage as finalists and winners in the week's competitions. Matthew Barbano was 3rd in the nation in the "Zap It" Electrical Applications challenge and was a finalist in the Go Green Manufacturing Challenge. Shanmuka Gadiraju joined teammates Brett and Amy from Washington Irving MS on the stage to receive the 3rd place trophy for the Global Manufacturing Challenge. Finally, Su-Ah Lee and Daniel Ruiz were semi-finalists in the Inventions & Innovations Challenge.

Frost students competed in a number of other challenging events and, while they might not have been the winners, all of them felt that they had done their best and competed well against some of the most tech savvy students in the nation. Almost 4000 students were in attendance representing at least 35 states and one foreign country: There were a dozen or so HS students from a school in Germany that participated and took home several trophies.

In addition to the events listed above, Frost students competed individually or as a team in several challenges and competitions. Shanmuka joined Daniel in the Problem Solving challenge where teams of 2 competed to build the strongest cantilever truss and he worked with Conrad in the Engineering Structure competition to build a bridge from balsa wood sticks. Shanmuka, Conrad and Su-Ah teamed up to tackle the Leadership Strategies challenge and Daniel worked hard in the weeks before the conference to prepare for the Multimedia Production competition, All of them showed great determination and dedication in their preparation of their entries.

I'll have more posts later and provide news of other FCPS student success at the National TSA Conference.