Calvary Engineering Team Sweeps the Competition

Marcia Herndon
 
The team designed, fabricated, and tested their concept by performing a variety of trade-off studies to account for a range of design requirements including physical size, maneuvering, speed, power, cost, and safety. During the competition, held at Georgia Southern’s Armstrong Campus, Calvary's team went head to head against teams from 7 other schools from the Chatham and Bulloch county area.  

The Calvary team swept the competition, taking first place in all 5 events - incline/sprint to stop course, maneuvering course, tug-of-war, engineering journal, and poster presentation!  

The primary features of Calvary’s winning design included a strong steel frame, 2 independent gear ratios - one for power and the other for speed, an innovative scooter-style steering design, and a small wheel base which provided a tight turning radius, an adjustable motor position to accommodate the different gears, and a motorcycle chain to provide extra strength during the high load factors of tug-of-war.

This competition provided Calvary’s students with the opportunity to develop skills that will be valuable no matter what path they take after high school. Students learned to think out of the box and to try new ideas-- a must for innovation and discovery. Students learned the art of both written and verbal technical communication - a must for sharing innovative ideas. Students learned to work as a team and to leverage the strengths of the individuals on the team -- a must for implementing innovative ideas.

Congratulations to the Engineering Team on a job well done!


  1. The incline/sprint to stop course tested the go-kart’s ability to accelerated from rest up a 20 degree incline and reach maximum speed.
  2. The maneuvering course tested the go-kart’s speed and agility in an obstacle course requiring a tight turning radius.
  3. The tug-of-war tested the go-kart’s power as two karts were connected with a rope and had to pull against each other. This challenge was conducted in a double elimination bracket style contest.
  4. The Engineering Journal documented the team’s use of the Engineering Design Process as well as research, trade studies, analysis, and financial data.
  5. The poster contest was a science fair style event where judges asked questions of the team members about their design while reviewing a poster containing details of the process.
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