DANBURY—In their second year as a competitive team, Immaculate High School’s Brave Engineers Team has once again captured the Connecticut Real World Design Challenge championship title.
Under the guidance of teacher advisor Jeanine Antonios and mentor Ruthanne Szumski from Pratt and Whitney Aircraft Engines, the Brave Engineers are now invited to compete in the RWDC National Competition on April 25 in Washington D.C.
The founder of the Challenge, Ralph K. Coppola, Ed.D., congratulated the IHS Brave Engineers for “demonstrating ability and significant achievement in science, technology, engineering and mathematics” and called the team members “among the best and brightest students in the State and the Nation.”
The Brave Engineers who participated in the State RWDC 2020 Challenge are: Keelan Doherty ‘20 of Danbury (Project Manager/Technical Leader), David Kallberg ‘20 of Bethel (Theory of Operation and Design Director), Ross Relator ‘20 of Danbury (Lead Design Engineer), Sarra Darby ‘22 of New Fairfield (Business Case Manager), Carolyn Jandura ‘22 of Redding (Safety Manager) and Nikolas Badinelli ’22 of Danbury (Design Engineer).
The Real World Design Challenge is an annual competition run by public and private partnerships, with the goal of setting a solid foundation for the future STEM workforce. It gives high school students the chance to work on real-world engineering challenges using professional science and engineering resources in a virtual environment, while allowing them to apply classroom lessons to real-life challenges found in the working world. This year, the Brave Engineers tested themselves with the State RWDC 2020 Unmanned Aerial System Challenge: Pilot Package Delivery. This task required participating teams to design a drone within certain constraints to support package delivery in an urban environment following safety guidelines while building a profitable business case.
Immaculate High School encourages students to find success in academics, athletics, fine arts and clubs and is ranked in the top ten of all Catholic high schools in the State of Connecticut by NICHE. One of the more affordable private high schools, Immaculate High School is also among the highest ranked Catholic high schools in the Diocese of Bridgeport and continues to attain the highest SAT scores in the Diocese. Immaculate High School students, a representation of area public, private and Catholic schools, seek academic challenges, discover leadership and engage in progressive learning opportunities and have high success rates: 100% of the Class of 2019 were accepted to choice colleges and universities and were awarded college scholarships and grants totaling $27 million.
In addition to a college-preparatory academic program that offers over 33 Advanced Placement classes and a STEAM curriculum featuring advanced technology, a CISCO certification program, renovated science labs and engineering classes and a Certified Nursing Associate program, Immaculate High School has an award-winning Fine Arts program, a student career internship program, athletic teams that have won SWC and State Championships, 44 clubs and a Campus Ministry and community service program that instills faith, compassion and reverence for others. Immaculate High School, founded in 1962, is a private, non-profit Catholic college-preparatory institution serving students from 28 communities in Connecticut and New York.
PHOTO: From left to right: Sarra Darby, Carolyn Jandura, Nikolas Bardinelli, Keelan Doherty, David Kallberg and Ross Relator
