April 2008

At the end of April, 32 Taft students participated in the JETS/TEAMS competition in which teams of eight students try to solve a set of difficult problems that are meant to test their engineering aptitude. Questions this year were based on the design of the Beijing Olympics.

The Taft Varsity A team placed 3rd in statewide competition, but placed 2nd in its division in national competition, where schools compete by size. Overall 648 schools participated, with a total of 1,180 teams in seven varsity and JV divisions.

Taft entered two varsity and two JV teams. The competition consists of a test in two parts. Part I results determine the statewide competition rankings and Part II determines the national rankings. However, Part II is only scored if a certain cutoff score is achieved on Part I.

Congratulations to Varsity A members:

Susan Weng
Jenny Jin
Louise Xu
Amy Jang
Therese Chang
Jasmine Chuang
Khai DoBa
Gor Nilanaon

The JV A team scored high enough to make the national rankings and finished 11th in their national division.

Congratulations to:

Mike Notaro
Josh Okonkwo
Cara Welch-Rubin
Thu Pham
Jesse Newbold
Adrian Fu
Alice Cho
Ron Park

For more information, visit the Junior Engineering Technical Society website.

photo by Yee-Fun Yin