Freshman in Mrs. Amy Ely’s STEM Explorations class participated in a national Engineering Design competition called eCYBERMISSION, where they swept the State Competition and became Regional Finalists. 

The eCYBERMISSION Challenge is an engineering design competition that tasks students with picking a problem in their community and creating a proposed solution in what’s known as a mission folder. This year, over 1,700 teams from across the country submitted entries.

Catholic Central students designed a portable desalination system the size of a briefcase to be used in areas with water scarcity or during natural disasters. The mini-desalination systems can be used to provide residents with clean drinking water. 

Student’s mission folders were judged by a board of engineers and scientists. Once each state received all of their scoring from the judges, they chose the top three teams from the state, based on their score. The highest three scores from each region were chosen as regional finalists. 

To earn their State Championship and Regional Finalist titles, Catholic Central students swept 11 other states. Two of the three CC teams who competed received excellent rankings. 

The team placings for Michigan were as follows:

• 1st Place: Cyber Crushers, consisting of Saathvik Koneru, Brady Shih, and Christian Leone 

• 2nd Place: Cyber Overnighters, consisting of Myles Craft, Martin Sanin, and Emmett Griffin 

• Honorable Mention: Ingenious Geniuses, consisting of Vincenzo Finazzo, Connor O’Neill, and Leighton Tabenske. 

The Cybercrushers each won a $2,000 savings bond for their first-place win, while the Cyber Overnighters earned a $500 savings bond each and the Ingenious Geniuses won a certificate for their honorable mention.