Engineering Design Challenge

The Engineering Design Challenge is an annual one-day event where Project Lead The Way (PLTW) students in the Bay Area gather to complete a rigorous engineering design challenge. Teams are composed of three students, all of whom have completed or are currently enrolled in a PLTW year-long Introduction to Engineering Design class.

At 11 a.m. sharp, students must turn in their design sketch. Students are scored on the whole day’s competition performance based upon a design brief revealed to student teams at 8 a.m. on Saturday. Teams need to bring their own time-keeping devices and must keep track of their own time to ensure they meet the deadlines for deliverables throughout the day.

Up to 18 high schools participate, and their teams have the entire Saturday to work together and create an original design that meets the design specifications given to them at the beginning of the competition. Throughout the day, teams are required to give judges specific deliverables including design sketches, assembly drawings, parts drawings, and exploded views of the design with parts lists.

The culminating event for the day includes formal team design presentations given before a group of industry judges. The top three teams go on to compete in the California Design Challenge.

Chevron is the sole sponsor of this event which began in 2011. Judges from a variety of companies join with Chevron on the Challenge day to offer their expertise. If you are interested in more information about getting involved, contact us. Our student competitors would benefit greatly from your participation.

In 2021, the Engineering Design Challenge will not be held due to the COVID pandemic. We look forward to 2022!

If you are interested in more information, please contact April Treece at apriltreece@ba-leeds.org.