The Hercules Titans made their school proud after sweeping first, second, and third place in several categories at the preliminary MESA event at CSU East Bay on Saturday, March 5th.
The annual MESA (Mathematics Engineering Science Achievement) event is a science fair-like competition where middle and high school students compete with other schools. Students answer one of the multiple project prompts that show off designing ingenuity, presentation skills, and creativity. According to MESA’s website, they provide “educationally and economically disadvantaged students with the skills and resources to be successful in school and career in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) disciplines.”
“I think MESA is a really beneficial program to be in. Not only does it make you really think and study the the topic of your creation, it also gives you the chance to really show off your academic skills.” Brandon Mark, the winner of the balsa wood airplane competition, said.
Hercules took home the gold, silver, and bronze in the prosthetic robotic arm category, this year’s nationally assigned project.
First place went to Ryan Cutter, Marc Pugeda, DiAngelo Soriano, and James Spilman. Vishaka Bhushan, Juan Pablo Palabrica, Shanti Shresta, and Gurvir Singh claimed a second place victory while third went to Anubhav Chanan, Jhanvi Doshi, Ernestina Hsieh, and Bartell Lin.
Hercules didn’t just stop there. The Titans topped the first and second tier for civil structures, which consisted of making a tension-resisting bridge out of balsa wood. Adrian Bernal and Kenneth DeLeon were awarded first and Xiao Chen and Jiayi Wang took second place.
The Titans continued to make their school proud. Amanda Calindas and Danielle Barroquillo got first place in making a model of the human heart, this year’s Model Science project.
Christine Fung represented Hercules by making a device to safely land an egg dropped from a high altitude (the EggXpress project) and took home third place.
The team of Brandon Mark and Alejandro Franco won the gold for 11th-12th grade Balsa Wood Gliders with Anurag Chanan coming in at a close second place. .
For Mousetrap Cars (cars powered by the snap of a mousetrap), Noel Signa and Pavitar Singh took first place, Joyce Lin won second place, and Justin Mahley and Andrew Magnoli took third place.
Titans showed off their brain power with clean sweeps again in the 10th grade solo math test. First place went to Jahnvi Doshi, second place went to Ernestina Hsieh, and third place went to Peter Nguyen.
Hercules didn't do bad in other math categories either. Nicholas Wu won third place for the 9th grade solo math test. In the 11th grade division, Anurag Chanan took third, and Max Lin took second place.
Senior Titans took on a team math quest and did not disappoint at all. Bartell Lin, Jiayi Wang, and Wilbert De Leon won first place and Cynthia De Castro, Alexander Lin, and Edric Tom won in second place.
Last, but certainly not least, comes the Speakeasy project (an assignment where students get to choose a topic and make a presentation to a panel of judges). For the 11th and 12th grade Speakeasy competition, Thao Le Hoang, Chiamaka Nwadike, and Shanti Shresta won in first place and Hooriya Aftab, Kumal Kumar, and Ramsha Singh won third place.
MESA not only gives students a chance to create, but also the chance to share these experiences with other students their age and have a good time.
“You know, you feel it. You’re getting excited, you’re into the challenge and being able to accept the challenge is already great and we go there to enjoy, not just to compete.” MESA adviser Emerlyn Gatchalian said. “If they hear Hercules is one of the schools competing, they’re going to be so scared” Gatchalian said confidently regarding other competing schools for regionals.
Congratulations to all the winners listed above who will go to the regionals on April 30 at UC Davis and will, without a doubt, make Hercules proud again.