SHPE Members Win Google Challenge

During their attendance at the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) National Conference, three members of the Northeastern chapter participated in a group challenge presented by Google. Not only did these members rise to the occasion to meet this challenge, but their creativity and ingenuity led them to achieve first place in this competition. The task was to invent a new and innovative application that would spark the interest of young students in STEM fields. The three students that took on this challenge are Jose Ramirez, CE'17 (President), Hector Grande, ChE'20 (Cultural Relations Chair), and James Tukpah, ME'20 (Public Relations Chair).

After brainstorming, the group decided that the best way to communicate with children is through the medium that they interacted with most i.e. tablets, phones, TV. The group decided that creating an app would be the best way to accomplish this. This app could be uploaded to any tablet or phone and would hold four main functions. It would allow users to watch videos/ tutorials on STEM focused do-it-yourself projects. It would have math and science games that were fun and challenging. It would have simulations that allowed the user to create different devices that would give them a taste of what it is like to be an engineer. The app would also have a sandbox area where the user would be able to play with three dimensional Lego’s or K’NEX’s. This app would be known as Google Kids.

After solidifying the idea for this application, Hector Grande and James Tukpah gave a short presentation to the judges and other teams at the event. In the end, this design received first place and awarded the three participating SHPE members with first generation Moto 360 smart watches.