Energy Department has high school contest

WASHINGTON, Oct. 20 (UPI) -- The U.S. Department of Energy has started a new competition designed to allow high school students to work on real world engineering challenges.

"The Real World Design Challenge is intended to engage high school students with real engineering problems faced by industry," said Bill Valdez, director of the department's office of workforce development for teachers and scientists. "The Department of Energy shares a concern with industry that not enough U.S. students are studying science and engineering. The … RWDC will encourage more students to choose scientific and engineering career paths."

The theme for the 2009 RWDC is "Aviation and Fuel Consumption." Student teams will be asked to redesign an existing aircraft to improve its fuel efficiency without drastically reducing its performance capabilities. Students will use professional engineering software to develop their solutions.

Participation is open to high school students, grades 9-12, residing or attending school in Connecticut, Hawaii, Kansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Virginia or Washington.

Teams must register by Nov. 15 and will have until Feb. 2 to submit their design solutions at the state level challenge. Officials said 65 teams have registered to date.

Additional information is available at http://www.scied.science.doe.gov/RWDC/index.html.