The Mendota Junior High School team is national champions of the MESA Engineering Design Competition!
8th graders Yousef Ali, Isabela Hamasaki, Sergio Mejia and Samed Obaid made the best robotic prosthetic arm in the nation. They claimed those top bragging rights (and a huge trophy) yesterday at competition held at Temple University in Philly. The Mendota team is led by MESA advisors Dave Sackrison, Max McDougal and Carlos Tamayo.
California MESA teams showed up in force, also claiming second place overall for the high school group. Pacheco High Team is made up of 9th graders Ernesto Castro and Kevin Ramirez and are led by advisors Tim Burns and Cruz Flores.
All teams had to perform several tasks with the arm, which is powered by a programmed coding board, as well as give an oral presentation and submit a complete R&D report. Both schools are served by the MESA center at the Fresno State Lyles College of Engineering.
Mendota is a small agricultural town in the California Central Valley and 97 percent of the population are Latino. The median household income is $25,800 and 62 percent of residents work in agriculture.
Our students have proven that with drive, vision and support anything is possible. The teams mothers sold tamales and held other fundraisers to raise money for the trip to nationals.
Congrats to our national champions!