On Saturday, May 12, 2018, students from Northern, Central, LA Metro, and Southern California MESA regions came to UC Irvine to compete in the State Championship for the MESA USA Middle and High School National Engineering Design Competition. We are pleased to report that the winner of this year’s California State Championship are Isbell Middle School MESA students, Brandon Arana & Samantha Ivanez! The various student projects featured unique ideas from helping save time, water and energy to creating devices to help the visually and physically impaired. Our Isbell Middle School team developed the “SmartCan”. They created the SmartCan to measure a pre-determined load and then alert the client, via a red LED light, when the can had to be emptied. The load weight can be adjusted, so that people with injuries who could not lift as heavy a trash bag, would have the SmartCan alert them when the load was within a weight they could lift.
We are very proud of our middle school team and excited that they will move on to the National Championship in Philadelphia, PA! The Isbell Middle School team will compete with other top MESA teams at Temple University in Philadelphia, PA on June 19-22.
We wish all the MESA middle and high school teams the best of luck at the National Championship. We also want to thank the parents, MESA Advisors, and MESA staff who encourage and work with our MESA students throughout the year.
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Isbell Middle School, 7th Grade Team – SmartCan Project. Pictured from left to right (back row): Enrique Guzman, MESA Programs Coordinator, UCSB’s Office of Education Partnerships; UCSB MESA Advisor at Isbell Middle School - Cari Leidig, Mathematics & Science Teacher; Bob Leidig, Retired Engineer and MESA Mentor; (front row) UCSB MESA Advisor at Isbell Middle School - Diana Georghiou, Science Teacher; and Isbell Middle School MESA Students Brandon Arana & Samantha Ivanez. Not pictured: Dr. Micaela Morgan, K-12 Programs Director, UCSB’s Office of Education Partnerships. |
| Pictured from left to right: UCSB MESA Advisor at Isbell Middle School - Cari Leidig, Mathematics & Science Teacher; Isbell Middle School MESA Students Brandon Arana & Samantha Ivanez; Dr. Micaela Morgan, K-12 Programs Director, UCSB’s Office of Education Partnerships; and UCSB MESA Advisor at Isbell Middle School - Diana Georghiou, Science Teacher. |  |