Each year MESA middle and high school student teams spend the better part of the school year designing, developing and building electronic devices that solve real-world problems. Competing in these hands-on contests help MESA students connect the math and science principals they learn in the classroom to real-world application.

Of course this year is not a normal year.

Although the COVID-19 pandemic has shuttered in-person events, we wanted to take a moment to recognize the students who won preliminary competitions earlier this year. These winners would have moved on to regional, state and possibly the national championship.

MESA Days are geared to showcase students’ math and science know-how. These future technical professionals spent months in late 2019 and early 2020 creating and a human-centered design approach to meet the needs of a real-world problem.

We congratulate our students for their hard work and dedication!

Below are the available middle school and high school winners from each local MESA center.

Cal State East Bay

1st: Gabriel Gomes, Mark Haddad, Aathavan Senthilkumar, Sricharan Guddanti, John F. Kennedy High School

2nd Place: Kaitlin Nguyen, Martin Leung, Surpreet Kau, Middle College High School

3rd Place: Matthew Li, Bikram Bains, Curtis Hu, Arif Ali, John F. Kennedy High School

Cal State Los Angeles

1st: Brandon Tran, Derick Pan, Kai Alcayde, Kevin Lam, San Gabriel High School

Imperial Valley

1st: Maleeha Amir, Mysha Amir, Erick Arceo, and Rayya Islam, Imperial High School 

San Diego State

 1st: Olivia Ngo, Phiquyen Pham, Oliver Tran, Holton Heiser, 8th grade, Challenger Middle School

1st: Mahmoud Salem, Alex Chau, Nickolas Smith (12th), Miguel Talamantez (11th), Helix Charter High School

2nd: Manuel Martinez Jr., Diego Estrada, Catherine Lisama (12th), Morse High School

San Jose State

1st: Ganesh Pimpale, Andrew Dang, Govind Pimpale, Henry Chen, Santa Teresa High School

2nd: Andy Phung, Louie Cabrera, Suryabhan Mohapatra,  Nathan Camacho, Independence High School 

3rd: Jenny Le, Kaitlyn Bui, Alena Chao, Kasey Doan, Santa Teresa High School

UC Irvine

1st:  Kayla Stanley, Aubrey Spallone, Thi Nguyen, Costa Mesa Middle School

2nd: Bela Avalos, Amador Cruz, Steven Cruz, KIPP Comienze Community Prep

3rd: Rihanna Gonzalez, Brooklyn Gomez, Nathan Ariza, Savannah Marin, Los Nietos Middle School

1st: Sophia Catania, Lucero Islas, Lena Nguyen, Jasmine Sirvent, Costa Mesa High School

2nd: Minh Duong, Thomas To, Kevin Mach, Gavan Yu, Bolsa Grande High School 

3rd: Victor Acuna, Evelyn Miguel, Wendy Aguilar, Luis Sanchez, Firebaugh High School

UC Los Angeles

1st Place: Erick Crispin (8) and Jonathan Tachiki (8), Daniel Webster MS

2nd Place: Daniella Cuevas (8), Catherine Segura (8), and Sydney Stewart (8), Daniel Webster MS

1st Place: Hayden Butcher (10) and Murphy Towne (10), Alexander Hamilton HS

2nd Place: Amanda Alarcon (11), Cindy Palacios (12), and Sophia Valdez (11), Los Angeles HS

3rd Place: Morel Bautista (9), Cesar Martinez (10), Jocelyn Sanchez (10), Los Angeles HS

UC Santa Barbara

1st Dat Huynh, Darien Martinez, Gerardo Oleynick & Jason Wright, Oxnard High School

University of Southern California

1st: Azrin Azrin Khan, Hasim Rahman, Kazi Salasbil (12), Bravo Medical Magnet High School

2nd: Marvin Perez, Jessica Porras, Cesar Rugama, Martha Salazar (12), Lennox Academy

3rd: Sharon Nathaniel, Amelie Tran, Nicholas Tran (10), Alhambra High School

1st: Nataneal Chavez, Kimberly De Leon, Johnathan Green, Christopher Mejia (8), Environmental Charter Middle School Inglewood

University of the Pacific

1st: Aleksei Macatuno, Dave Soliven, Dulin Le, Oscar Avalos, Stockton Early College Academy

2nd: Agamjot Bal, Audreen Bandegan,Felix Qu,Kris Chau, Middle College High School

1st: Alejandra Ochoa, Sukhpreet Kaur, Yasriyah Saleem, Rio Calaveras Elementary

3rd: Gerardo Chavez, Prantik Bharadwaj, Rahul Sharma, Stockton Early College Academy