MESA Prepares for Future Competitions

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DALLA WONG
Staff Writer
Mathematics Engineering Science Achievement (MESA) is a program on campus that was founded to assist students interested in scientific majors with training and further education.
With a weekly attendance of over a hundred members, juniors and seniors meet in Biology teacher Jocelyn Castro’s room in S-144, while freshmen and sophomores meet in Mathematics teacher Ronnie Woo’s room in B-22.
The annual Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Invention Challenge was MESA’s main focus last semester. Held annually, this year’s goal was to give students a chance to create a contraption that was capable of reaching an objective in teams of four to eight members.
This time, the objective was to build a device capable of propelling a ping pong ball up approximately two meters high, starting from a minimum of 19 inches.
One team from AHS placed fifteenth out of 60 groups in regionals and eighth out of 20 teams in finals.
“I like MESA because it’s a challenging club where I can do hands-on projects that I’ve never done before,” said sophomore Jaylina Vay.
Members are now working hard for their upcoming competitions. The first one is Junior Engineering Technical Society (JETS), taking place on March 5. Students form into groups and work together to solve an engineering problem; the group with the best solution wins.
Some examples of inventions included a balloon with weights attached to the bottom and a paper cup on the top to hold the ping pong ball. Another advanced team built a car-like device that could climb on walls.
MESA Day, to be held in April, is also an important event for members. There are about 14 events to choose from. Members will compete against 14 other schools that are registered with USC as their MESA center in Southern California. If the teams place in the top three for any competition, they qualify to go to regionals.
The competition they are participating in is fairly new and if they place in the top three, they have a chance to go to nationals.
“Some goals this semester for Pre-MESA day and MESA Day are to place first, second and third on solo and team math competitions,” said President Vivian Lam. “Hopefully, we can be able to grab top three in other competitions as well.”