Shawnee Mission Aerospace Students Glide In For The Win

Recently two Shawnee Mission high school students earned the top prize at a university aerospace design contest.

Luke Rogers, Shawnee Mission Northwest senior and Carlos Alvarado, Shawnee Mission North senior built a glider that outshined the competition for distance, flight time, and accuracy. They each earned a $2,000 scholarship to the University of Kansas.

These students are enrolled in Shawnee Mission’s Aerospace Engineering Signature Program and the contest required them to draw upon engineering, creative, and collaborative skills in order to succeed.

Their strong knowledge of flight led to the achievement, Jessica Tickle, SMSD aerospace engineering instructor shared.

“These students, when asked by industry professionals about their gliders, were able to speak in appropriate terminology about their design decisions and how they adapted after each flight.” Tickle added, “We have such a great Engineering program in this district and it showed in their work products and their performance that they have a strong understanding of the design process.”

The University of Kansas event included numerous challenges in different disciplines. Shawnee Mission East seniors, Duncan Bennett and Abigail Gilmore also participated in the Aerospace competition. Computer Science students also participated in the university’s computer science challenge earning a perfect score in their competition. The Computer Science team included Aiden Wilson and Adrian Janner, SM South seniors, Jamie Burgess, SM South junior, and Charlie Moren, SM East junior.