Xavier Falcons win the Real World Design Challenge

By DE Editors

PTC, a founding member of the Real World Design Challenge (RWDC) has announced that the Xavier Falcons from Middletown, CT, won the 2010-2011 National Finals Competition.

The Real World Design Challenge is a national aviation design competition for high school students run by a public-private partnership with the goal of increasing the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workforce. Students from 20 states competed in elimination presentations in Chevy Chase, MD. The top three teams surviving the elimination rounds presented their national final solutions to a panel of judges representing government, academia and industry in Washington, DC. In a close competition, the Xavier Falcons’ next-generation airplane design was judged to be the best.

“The students are the real stars,” says Ken Bowersox, vice president of Mission Assurance and Astronaut Safety. “They are going to be the ones creating the exciting technological advancements of the future, and the Real World Design Challenge is giving them the tools to help unleash that creative potential today.”

The Challenge problem was designed by a team of engineers from government and industry including the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Cessna Aircraft Company, the Federal Aviation Administration and others to let students tackle the design challenges that engineers face every day.

“Businesses today are concerned about where they will find a creative, highly skilled workforce needed to prosper 10 and 20 years,” says John Stuart, senior vice president, Education, PTC. “Through the Real World Design Challenge, we are significantly building the next generation of engineers. We have high school students already using the same tools as the best engineers in the industry and taking on the same challenges the best and brightest engineers face every day.”

This year, more than 3,000 students from across the country participated in the Challenge. Every student participated at no cost to themselves or their schools. partners have donated more than $1 billion to schools since the Challenge’s inception. Forty partners from industry, government, and academia have come together to make the Challenge a reality. They have worked in collaboration with the governors and lieutenant governors of 28 states and the District of Columbia. 

For more information, visit the Real World Design Challenge site.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.