Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google


Student Innovations Take Flight in DOT Competition

  • By Dian Schaffhauser
  • 03/07/13

The United States Department of Transportation is seeking out innovations in aviation and aerospace among students in high school and college through the second annual RAISE Award competition.

Submissions for this year's "Recognizing Aviation and Aerospace Innovation in Science and Engineering" award will be accepted from May 1 to July 1. Public voting and judging takes place through October 30. Winners will be announced on October 31.

The intent of the competition is to encourage students to develop creative solutions to aviation and aerospace issues and to share their results with the broader community. Entries may consist of research papers, science experiments, inventions, or ideas for inventions. The contest is open to individuals and teams. The submissions will be judged on originality, impact, practicality, measurability, applicability, and technical merit by a panel of people from the department, the Federal Aviation Administration, and NASA, as well as academic experts.

Winners have the chance to visit with the transportation secretary and present their idea to department officials. (Current Secretary Ray LaHood has announced his resignation, and a replacement has not yet been appointed.) They'll also receive a trophy with their names and the data of the award, which will be displayed at the department in Washington, D.C. A display copy of the trophy will also be sent to the recipients' school, and team members will receive individual plaques or trophies.

The 2012 recipients of the award, a team of high school students from Middletown, CT, proposed a modification to the angled end of an aircraft wing, which would allow it to change its angle during ascent and descent to reduce drag and save fuel. The new wing design was projected to reduce jet fuel use by 600 million gallons a year just among the country's commercial fleet of 737s.

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

Featured

  • Engineering team implements digital guardrails on AI

    3 Starting Points for Integrating AI Guardrails in K-12 Districts

    As education leaders start to craft an AI policy that is both practical and flexible enough to evolve with this fast-changing technology, there is at least one principle that should be foundational: AI should serve to augment human critical thinking and creativity but never replace human interaction and decision-making.

  • abstract cybersecurity data protection

    Rubrik Announces Google Workspace Data Protection

    Rubrik has introduced Rubrik Data Protection for Google Workspace, a product the company said is designed to help enterprise customers protect data and restore operations across Google Workspace environments.

  • artificial intelligence on laptop

    OpenAI Plans to Combine AI Products into Desktop 'Superapp'

    OpenAI is reportedly developing a desktop application that would incorporate several of its emerging AI products into a single platform, according to reports, marking the latest step in the company's effort to transform ChatGPT from a standalone chatbot into a broader productivity and automation environment.

  • abstract smartphone translucent screen displaying AI interface

    Apple Unveils Redesigned Siri AI

    At its recent Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple announced Siri AI, a redesigned version of its voice assistant that Apple describes in its own announcement as "a profoundly more capable and personal assistant." The update is intended to make Siri more conversational, more context-aware, and more useful across iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Vision Pro.