Three groups of students from the Stevenson Manufacturing, Automation and Design Engineering (Stevenson MADE) program were named finalists for the Michigan Design Prize Challenge.
MADE is a specialty school program at Stevenson High School in the Utica Community Schools District.
All three groups of students submitted a design concept aligned with the described challenge instructions, which were to “design an interactive game, craft or project, or toy that helps create fun and meaningful engagement with friends.” or the family during periods of social distancing ”.
Stevenson MADE design thinking professor Mark LaCombe offered the Michigan Design Prize challenge to his 2020-21 design thinking freshmen to help teach students how to collaborate and work effectively as a team while highlighting the engineering design process.
“As students complete the design thinking course, they become more aware of the importance of having an innovation process and creating new ideas,” said LaCombe. “They have a plan on how to work effectively together to develop these concepts.”
The students recognized as finalists of the challenge and their projects are:
Design Team 1: Samantha Fenwick, Jada Blue and Skylar Hempel
Their concept was Isolation Roomz, in order to have something to enjoy without having the possibility of being in contact with others.
Design Team 2: Mario Gjini, Yousif Habsh and Connor Harrison
Their concept was a Tag bracelet, which would allow people to actively engage in hands-free tagging in large groups.
Design Team 3: Max Monig, Joshua Abbott and Andrew Bogusz
As finalists, each group of students will meet professional designers who will mentor them and help develop the concept of the group further by brainstorming improvements and creating a professional level design board.
Stevenson MADE sophomore, Samantha Fenwick, said her group was proud of this achievement.
“To be named a finalist is a victory in its own way,” Fenwick said.
Meanwhile, Andrew Bogusz, a Stevenson MADE sophomore and Michigan Design Challenge finalist, said his team’s goal in being a finalist was to improve the design to the best of their ability. Bogusz added, “We might even try to market it with a big company if we want to go big with it.”
The timing for the announcement of the final Michigan Design Prize challenge winners is to be determined as the Michigan Design Council has to wait until the finalists’ meetings with the professional designers are over. All challenge finalists will be invited to attend an awards ceremony in Ann Arbor to be recognized.