Award-winning Aeronautical Dolphins impress Torres

The Marianas High School Aeronautical Dolphins, champions of the national 2015 Real World Design Challenge, presented on Capital Hill Tuesday their award-winning design of an unmanned aircraft that they said would efficiently spray pesticide on crops while reducing the risks of chemical-related illnesses, wildlife loss, and harm to water quality. Acting governor Ralph DLG Torres said he came away from the presentation impressed.

The Marianas High School Aeronautical Dolphins pose for a photo with acting governor Ralph DLG Torres and other school and administration officials yesterday. (Dennis B. Chan)

“I was speechless with their success,” Torres said. “Especially, with our situation here with [Typhoon] Soudelor and the commitment” they showed to the project. “I am actually really excited for their future. They built their friendship, camaraderie with each other, which brings not just Marianas High School to a whole new level but also the whole CNMI. I can’t wait to see what’s up with them next,” he told Saipan Tribune

The MHS team worked year-round to complete the winning design that they said could help address food shortage scenarios come 2050, when the world’s population is expected to be at about 9 billion people.

Nine billion means 2 billion-plus more mouths to feed, or a minimum increase of about 70 percent of the population, team members said.

Project manager Ann Margaret Norcio told Inos administration officials that the team spent late nights at local cafes as they had to find ways to work on the project without power or Internet following Typhoon Soudelor.

“I really don’t know how to describe it,” said project mathematician Masrur Alam. “We’ve been working since November 2014 and they announced the results November 2015. We’ve put one year into this work, this product. And we worked everyday and most of the times during the weekends. To see what we designed win the national championship just left us—I don’t know how to describe it,” he told Saipan Tribune.

“For a lot of students who join clubs or competitions,” Norcio told Saipan Tribune, “they usually do it to go on trips, to go to Washington, D.C. That’s the same with RWDC. We’ve had many people come try out, many people come and leave after finding out for this year students won’t be going to compete in Washington, D.C.

“That would be a letdown for most of the other competitors but for us, we didn’t mind that we weren’t going to D.C. What we focused on more was the challenge. Knowing that we worked this hard, and knowing that we didn’t have to go to D.C. for it …it feels very good,” she added.

Exhilarating
MHS mathematics teacher and coach John Raulerson also shared how the winning team found out the news, growing teary eyed and emotional as he spoke.

He said they competed via teleconference on a Sunday, a day before winners were announced.

It was during second period on a school day when he and his students gathered to listen to the announcement.

As merit awards were being announced, the MHS team was passed over, despite one of the awards being an “against all odds” award, given the island’s situation after Tyhpoon Soudelor.

Raulerson said when they were announced as the overall winner, the “whole room went crazy” and students went knocking on other teachers’ rooms to share the news.

He said only the state of Kansas has won the competition twice. The MHS teams join that list after winning the national competition in 2013.

“Here we are in the middle of the ocean and we won it twice. I think these kids deserve to see the president of the United States,” Raulerson said, to much applause.