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MAGLEV contest

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Winners in the 3D printed category: pictured from left, Jashmin Futch of TFCU; third place winner Stella Bond, Bridgehampton School; second place winner Landon Tully, Accompsett Middle School; first place winner Srihas Mandava, Accompsett Middle School; and Robert Caradonna of BNL Photo by Jessica Rotkiewicz/Brookhaven National Laboratory

A big blue shark, an array of pirate ships, and a propeller-driven water bottle were among student-made magnetic levitation vehicles that floated down the tracks at the 2024 Maglev Competition hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton on March 20.

Students from middle schools across Long Island became engineers at the annual contest, designing and refining their maglev creations to log their fastest travel time. A total of 150 students from 10 local middle schools including Accompsett Middle School and Great Hollow Middle School of Smithtown submitted vehicles in hopes of earning top spots in eight categories judging speed and appearance.

The competition is inspired by technology pioneered by two Brookhaven Lab researchers, the late Gordon Danby and James Powell, who invented and patented superconducting maglev — the suspension, guidance, and propulsion of vehicles by magnetic forces.

“The Maglev Contest is unique in the way it provides students with an open environment to tinker, tweak, and test their vehicle designs in order to achieve the best possible outcome,” said competition coordinator Jonathan Ullmann, a senior education programs representative for the Lab’s Office of Educational Programs. “This process is very similar to how the scientists and engineers work on big research projects here at Brookhaven Lab.”

During the awards ceremony, the students heard from Robert Caradonna, a federal project manager at the DOE-Brookhaven Site Office, about his role in overseeing large design and construction of scientific research facilities including the current project to construct the Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) — a new discovery machine that physicists will use to explore the building blocks of matter — and the previous effort to construct the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II), a DOE Office of Science user facility where interdisciplinary researchers explore materials.

Students use math, science, and technology principles to optimize the design of their vehicles. The competition day also brings out their creativity and resourcefulness on the fly: one student fixed their math homework to their vehicle to use as a sail on the contest’s wind-powered track; another student attempted to fill a disposable glove with air to propel their vehicle down a flat track after their original balloon broke.

“That’s what it’s all about — for them to troubleshoot and figure it out,” said David Driscoll, a technology teacher at Albert G. Prodell Middle School. “They’re learning to have patience, think through things, change things up, and make adjustments.”

Students who opted to compete in this year’s appearance categories went for unique and eye-catching designs that included a leek (the vegetable) used as a vehicle body, hand-painted artwork from a favorite show, and color-changing lights. A host of 3D-printed creations traveled down the tracks, too, including train cars, a racecar, and an intricate lizard.

This was the first year that the Bridgehampton School’s STEAM Team — a before-school club — entered 3D-printed vehicles into the competition after learning how to use 3D printers and a modeling program.

“We’ve been using MakerBot 3D printers and Tinkercad; the kids have been having a blast on it,” said Lou Liberatore, a fifth-grade teacher at Bridgehampton.

Mallory Dougherty, also a fifth-grade teacher at Bridgehampton, added: “We’re really excited to be in that category. They really picked up on it. They impressed us with how they were about to figure out how it all works.”

Congratulations to the following winners:

Speed categories

Self-propelled (balloon)

First place: Andrew Oliveri, Bay Shore Middle School; Second place: Ghaleb Rashid, Bay Shore Middle School; and Third place: Landon Wernersbach, Bay Shore Middle School

Self-propelled (other)

First place: Owen Huber, Bay Shore Middle School; Second place: Caleb Leichtman, Bay Shore Middle School; and Third place: Indigo O’Neill, Bay Shore Middle School

Electrified track

First place: Chase Harrison, Bay Shore Middle School; Second place: Jordan Patron, Bay Shore Middle School; and Third place: Ethan Rodriguez, Bay Shore Middle School

Wind power

First place: Jordyn Lusak, Albert G. Prodell Middle School; Second place: Brody Morgan, Great Hollow Middle School; and Third place: Alex Manessis, Accompsett Middle School

Gravity

First place: Jonah Maraglio, Albert G. Prodell Middle School; Second place: Eva Cabrera, Bay Shore Middle School; and Third place: Doris Lu, Great Neck South Middle School

Appearance categories

Futuristic

First place: Aylin Tucksonmez, Albert G. Prodell Middle School; Second place: Jeremy Schember, Great Hollow Middle School; and Third place: Alexander Radek, Great Hollow Middle School

Scale model

First place: Quentin Lennox, Marcus Chang, & Lucas Chang, Great Neck South Middle School; Second place: Owen Anderson, Albert G. Prodell Middle School; and Third place: Brendan D’Agostino, Berner Middle School

3D printed

First place: Srihas Mandava, Accompsett Middle School; Second place: Landon Tully, Accompsett Middle School; and Third place: Stella Bond, Bridgehampton School

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Katherine Liang of Paul J. Gelinas Junior High School with the bridge that earned her first place in BNL’s annual Bridge Building Contest

Sometimes the term building bridges takes on a more literal meaning. 

David Liang of Ward Melville High School placed second in the bridge building contest.

The Office of Educational Programs (OEP) at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory announced local students who earned the top spots in both the  2021 Bridge Building Contest and 2021 Maglev Competition during an online awards ceremony on April 16.

Each competition, held virtually this year, offers students a hands-on opportunity to apply math, science, and technology principles as they design and build bridges and magnetic levitation cars.

“Conceiving, designing, and building the one-of-a-kind facilities at Brookhaven National Laboratory takes extraordinary vision on the part of our scientists and our engineers to advance our science mission,” said OEP Manager Kenneth White. 

“These two competitions test the design and analytical skill of contestants to create bridges and vehicles to exacting specifications and performance expectations much like our facilities demand of our staff. We hope some of these contestants will be our staff one day to take on another engineering challenge supporting extraordinary discoveries.”

Bridge Building Competition

Victor Prchlik of Ward Melville High School took third place in the bridge building contest.

In the annual Bridge Building Contest, high school students became engineers competing to construct the most efficient model bridge out of lightweight wood. Efficiency is calculated from the bridge’s weight and the weight the bridge can hold before breaking or bending more than one inch. The higher the efficiency, the better the design and construction.

Dedicated Brookhaven Lab staff engineers and technicians tested 40 qualifying structures during a live online event on April 8.

Katherine Liang, a 9th grade student of Paul J. Gelinas Junior High School earned first place with a bridge that weighed 18.7 grams, supported 38.6 pounds. The bridge earned an efficiency of 936.29.

For some students, a trial-and-error process was key to solidifying a design. Liang said she built and tested five bridges by weighing them down with a bucket of sand before submitting her final winning structure.

Second place went to David Liang of Ward Melville High School, whose bridge weighed 19 grams, held 36.4 pounds had an efficiency of 868.98.

Victor Prchlik, also from Ward Melville High School, placed third with a bridge that weighed 23.7 and supported 44.5 pounds with an efficiency of 851.87

Jonathan Chung of Smithtown East High School won this year’s Aesthetic Award.

“The whole process was fun from start to finish,” Chung said. “One of the most challenging parts was getting the glue to stick the wood together. I ended up solving that problem by using a hairdryer to dry it.”

This year’s Bridge Building Contest Aesthetic Award went to Jonathan Chung of Smithtown East High School, pictured with physics teacher Dr. Gillian Winters.

Brookhaven Lab staff tested magnetic levitation cars built by students from Island Trees Middle School and Bay Shore Middle School to see who came up with the fastest design.

MAGLEV Contest

This year’s Maglev Contest for 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students included two main categories for speed and appearance. Brookhaven Lab staff tested 21 maglev cars for speed on a fixed gravity track–13 of which reached the finish line.

Brady Leichtman of Bay Shore Middle School won first place in the speed category.

Second place went to Isabella Rouleau of Bay Shore Middle School. Jesse Bonura of Island Trees Middle School placed third and also won the top spot in the competition’s appearance category with a futuristic blue car. Bay Shore Middle School students Amber Marquez and Andrea Romero, placed second and third in the appearance category, respectively.

Brookhaven Lab staff tested magnetic levitation cars to see who came up with the fastest design. Bonura found that part of the fun was testing and reengineering the maglev’s design. “We’d make it quicker and test it over and over again to make it perfect,” Bonura said.

The maglev contest is based on research by two Brookhaven engineers, the late Gordon Danby and James Powell, who invented and patented maglev technology—the suspension, guidance, and propulsion of vehicles by magnetic forces.

Magnetic properties give the maglev trains their extraordinary capabilities for speed and stability. These same principles—using magnetic forces to move matter — are used in world-class research facilities at Brookhaven Lab, including the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) and the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II) — which are both DOE Office of Science user facilities. Magnetic properties allow the machines to move particles at nearly the speed of light for research purposes.

Brookhaven National Laboratory is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science. For more information, visit https://energy.gov/science.

Photos courtesy of BNL

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