According to renowned physicist Albert Einstein, “Scientists investigate that which already is; engineers create that which has never been.” Under the tutelage of Fischer High School Engineering and Computer Science educator David Rivera, students are getting an early start on engineering. According to Mr. Rivera, an education in engineering “helps them create new things … we have no idea how they’ll transform society overall.”
As the teacher of the Engineering Capstone, Mr. Rivera leads students like junior Eden Ezra and senior Aaron Feldbaum through courses including Engineering I Honors and Engineering II Honors, concluding with Engineering III at a rigorous AT (Advanced Topics) level. Eden, a junior in her third and final year of the capstone, who also took AP Computer Science Principles in her sophomore year, helped break down what she gained from the last two years of the capstone.
“In Engineering I, I learned the foundations, like what a circuit is and how to measure resistance.”
She described the difference between the first- and second-year courses, explaining that Engineering II “was my moment to become more hands-on with engineering … I started building stuff by myself, experimenting with different applications.”
In other words, Engineering I was her entry into the world of engineering. By learning all the basics, she was able to later implement that information into hands-on projects so that she could experiment independently. Likewise, Aaron, a senior, has followed a similar trajectory as Eden and is completing the capstone in his final year at Posnack. He began his journey in his sophomore year and has been active in the Engineering Club for most of his high school career. He also noted that he did not solely fuel his passion for engineering through the capstone, but has also nurtured it through math courses, as well as STEM sciences, specifically physics.
In both Eden’s and Aaron’s narratives, it becomes clear that engineering is not just an interest, but something that has become a major theme in their high school education and also part of their identity.
Mr. Rivera’s engineering classes have been working diligently all year to prepare for various competitions and engineering events. He outlined that in Engineering I and II, his classes are working on “pitching their ideas for a product that they’re going to eventually design and build in the second half of the year. And if they win that, then they’ll get to win an award in the local CIJE (The Center for Initiatives in Jewish Education), or maybe even go on the CIJE Tank where their product can win a patent and some money to help get their company started.”
He proudly shared that his hard-working third-year engineering students in November “came back from the CIJE Tank with the PupPal product (a trio of pet products), which did earn best business plan, which is a huge award for this year.”
Eden, who took part in this competition, provided her own perspective on the product development aspect of the capstone, explaining how “in the past, part of the curriculum for our classes was to create our own products. From Engineering I and II, I’ve had two products. One of them has been considered for a patent.”
Mr. Rivera noted that these students are now working on a drone competition coming in February, with the opportunity to reach nationals in Detroit. Mr. Rivera added that his Engineering III class will also be working on BattleBots, with the finals taking place in Japan, humorously stating, “so that might take a little bit of work.”
Aaron expanded on Mr. Rivera’s comments regarding these competitions. “We worked on our sumo bots for a competition … we build an autonomous vehicle, and then we have them fight in a sumo ring-style battle … I coded the vehicle using PBasic,” he said. PBasic, for those unfamiliar with coding, is a type of programming language.
Aaron also described his progress in the drone competition, explaining that “I’m on Team DRC, and we’re in the final stages of the development of our drone … I worked on the marketing aspect of the drone, as well as assisting wherever needed.”
Aaron and Eden are not just part of the Engineering Capstone, but are also involved in the Engineering Club. This school year, the club took part in an AI Presidential Competition, in which both Eden, who serves as the president of the Engineering Club, and Aaron, alongside his partner Yonatan Gal, a junior, worked with AI to create various solutions to solve problems that they entered into a competition.
Aaron recounted his experience and the solution he worked on. “Specifically, I worked on Ember AI, which is an AI in which you upload an image of a scrape or burn. Specifically, our target users are paramedics or medical personnel who need to quickly assess and accurately assess burns. It properly examines the type of burn … it also recommends treatment plans for the medical personnel … it provides them with the location of the best hospital or medical facility that meets the level of their wounds, and it tells them the IV fluids they need.”
To conclude, the Engineering Capstone and club are hard at work creating new products and solutions to big problems. They are also learning important skills in engineering and taking part in exciting events such as the AI competition, drone competition and more.
Mr. Rivera expressed the importance of engineering in society and the involvement of young people within it, explaining that “given how transformative we’ve seen something like, say, ChatGPT in just two years … people can’t imagine their lives without that. Think about technologies that have been transformative. So we’re creating the future and giving these students the ability to go ahead and secure them for jobs.”
In other words, engineering is important because it transforms society and allows individuals to advance the world by making it more efficient. Eden added to Mr. Rivera’s words, explaining that she thinks “it’s a very important field, because number one, it helps you test your creativity, and so sometimes you could make things that people never would have imagined, and it also helps you learn how to solve problems. So sometimes you may not be able to solve a problem the way you want to at first, and then you have to just look at different techniques and then go from there.”
Aaron provided his thoughts on engineering, stating, “I like engineering because it teaches me a thought process that is very distinct from other things. And I could apply this thinking process to a lot of things I do in my day-to-day life. I also like the creative nature of STEM, where you use mathematics, physics, as well as other subjects to put your imagination into feasible things to hopefully better society.”
He concluded by emphasizing the power of engineering: “Engineering is limitless.”
