Princess Margaret Secondary team wins award at NASA challenge debut
Team LeoCRAFT in Huntsville, Alabama. (Image submitted)A team of students from Princess Margaret Secondary proudly returned to Surrey after an award-winning performance at a NASA challenge event held in Huntsville Alabama last month.
Team LeoCRAFT was one of only 72 teams selected from across the world to compete in the NASA Human Exploration Rover Challenge (HERC) and is the first Canadian team to ever take part in the competition’s 30-year history.
“I couldn’t be more proud of our students,” said Princess Margaret vice-principal Pam Sandhu. “Not only were they representing our school and city, but to be the first team to ever represent Canada at this global competition was truly special.”
For the competition, students had to design, build and then drive a human-powered rover through a course of varying terrain at the NASA’s Huntsville facility.
While the team’s finish time didn’t get them on the podium, they did walk away with the STEM Engagement Award for the various outreach initiatives they undertook in the lead-up to the competition. These engagement events included attending elementary schools to discuss the challenge with students, setting up information booths at public events and making the rounds on TV, radio and print media.
“They connected with so many younger kids in the community who were fascinated by what they were doing, and we heard from so many about how they wanted to do the same when they got to high school,” said Sandhu.
The team’s sponsor teacher Jag Uppal said despite it being the group’s first time competing, LeoCRAFT took to the challenge like ducks to water.
“Everything is taken into consideration by judges,” he said. “From the very first interview with NASA, to the team’s conduct throughout, how easily the rover is able to be transported to the competition site and, of course, the actual performance at the competition – they nailed it every step of the way.”
Sandhu said the students enjoyed their time in Alabama and that one of the directors of NASA even took a special interest in the team.
Team LeoCRAFT had to use a makeshift wooden wheel for day 2 of their competition. (Image submitted)
“He talked with us about how important Canada has been throughout the history of space exploration and how special it was for a Canadian team to finally make it down,” she said.
As for the competition itself, the team ran a respectable time, ending up 13th after the first day. However, due to a broken wheel, the team didn’t expect they would be able to compete on the second day.
“We thought that was it,” said Uppal. “But a NASA engineer and some others helped us brainstorm and we were able to come up with a temporary fix where we made a makeshift wheel out of plywood.”
The next day, the team ended up beating their first day time by six minutes, plywood wheel and all.
“Many teams weren’t even able to compete on the second day due to damaged rovers,” said Sandhu.
As the only Canadian team in the competition’s history, Sandhu said there was a lot of interest in who they were and where they were from.
“We had a lot of questions asking about our school, if we were a university, an IB program or a private school and they were all surprised to find out we were a public high school,” said Sandhu. “It’s a testament to the great teachers here like Mr. Uppal.”
Uppal said it’s an experience he won’t soon forget.
“We just want to thank the community and everyone that supported the team, it was an amazing experience and the group is already talking about entering again next year,” he said.
Watch the team’s performance below:
