Teams from Costa Mesa Middle/High School (CMMHS) and Early College High School (ECHS) attended the Math Engineering Science Achievement (MESA) Southern Regional Competition in April, earning multiple first-place wins.

MESA is a college and career preparation organization that encourages student diversity and achievement in science, technology, engineering, and math. The variety of events allows students to showcase projects they have spent months creating, bridging classroom knowledge with real-world applications of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Students who earned first place in prior competitions were invited to attend the Southern Regional Competition.

“For some of our seniors, this competition was the culmination of years of study and innovation, as they have competed in MESA Day competitions since seventh grade,” said CMHS Teacher and MESA Advisor Racine Cross. 

See below for highlights of students whose projects placed in the top three in the various MESA competitions:

• National Engineering Design Competition (NEDC) - Designing for Equity Locally to Affect Sustainability Globally: 

  • CMMHS’s Ha Mi Nguyen, Grace Graham, and Rihanna Rosas Garcia placed first in the Overall, Design Proposal, Academic Poster, and Symposium categories and second in Technical Pitch. The three students now advance to the state championship competition on May 18, 2024.

High school and middle school teams of two to four students identify an individual or group who experiences some type of inequity and then employ human-centered design practices to engineer a solution. Projects were judged on the effectiveness of their projects using four essential components: a design proposal (a non-technical overview of the inspiration for their project), academic poster (an overview of the project with relevant data and prototype information), technical pitch (in which students establish their technical knowledge and demonstrate the prototype’s functionality) and symposium (in which students engage an audience in a conversation about their project in a conference-like setting). 

• Moon Base: 

  • Britany Escobedo and Victoria Rios of CMMHS placed first in Impact-to-Mass Ratio and Innovative Engineering Design in the 9-10 Division. 

  • CMMHS students Kyle Huynh and Jada Lee earned second place in Innovative Engineering Design and third place in Impact-to-Mass Ratio in the 11-12 Division.

In teams of two to three, participants designed and constructed, from recycled cardboard, an original structure that would serve as a research station on the moon and could withstand the highest amount of impact, was lightweight, and met specific size requirements.

• MESA Think Tank: 

  • An Nguyen and Everet Miller of CMMHS won first place in Environmental Sustainability Zero Emissions in the 7-8 Division. 

Teams of two to three students research zero emissions technology and create a design concept and TED talk-like presentation that illustrates this future. 

• Cargo Glider: 

  • German Leon, Evan Garcia, and Nam Le of CMMHS earned first place in Accuracy and second place in Innovative Engineering Design, both in the 11-12 Division.

  • ECHS students Alexander Cahuantzi, Cameron Gerakos, and Antonio Gonzalez placed second in 9-10 Division categories Innovative Engineering Design and Performance.

Students worked in teams of two to three to design and construct a glider with a payload that, when launched, would fly over an obstacle and land on a target located 34 feet away.  

• Coding Solutions: 

  • CMMHS students Dylan Juarez and Nam Ho competed in the 7-8 Division category Experienced for students with prior Coding Solutions competition participation and earned first place. 

  • Competing in the same division’s category for Novice, CMMHS’s Jacob Juarez and Joe Chezmechyan placed third.

Students working independently or with a partner participated in a mock interview for a software company, during which they were tested on their knowledge of programming fundamentals and problem-solving using JavaScript (a programming language often used to develop websites).

• Math Escape: 

  • Aidan Quintos, Anton Grun, and Kingston Do of CMMHS took second place in the 9-12 Division. 

Teams of two to three participants competed to be the quickest to navigate through an online escape room using critical thinking skills and grade-level math.

• Mesa Machine: 

  • In the Device Performance Accuracy and Innovative Engineering Design categories in the 9-10 Division, CMMHS students Escher Clark and Thuc Nguyen placed third.

Students in teams of two to three designed, constructed, and tested vehicles, specifically a bus or car, that would be propelled by wind using four to eight different sequential and dependent actions and stop closest to a target 3 meters from the start. 

For more than a decade, Costa Mesa Middle/High School students have participated in the MESA competitions, consistently placing first in multiple categories. CMMHS offers a variety of engineering courses at both the middle and high school levels as components of the Engineering Design Pathway, part of NMUSD’s Career Technical Education (CTE) program. ECHS offers high school-level courses in computer science and engineering for all grades.