LAS VEGAS (KLAS) – A team of students from Rancho High School’s Academy of Aviation won the 2023 Real World Design Challenge (RWDC) competition in both the international and national categories.
The RamJets beat schools from China and the Philippines in the international category. This was the team’s second time winning the national competition, the first coming in 2013.
The team features seven members, and as winners, each student will now receive a $50,000 scholarship from the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
This year the team focused on designing an aircraft project that could provide support with package deliveries.
The student had to come up with a solution for delivering packages using an uncrewed aircraft and safely flying it from one location to another. The students had to come up with plans regarding reserved fuel, making sure the airspace is clear and safety precautions are taken care of.
Jordan Tran, 15, is part of the Rancho High School’s RamJets team who took part in the competition and believed teamwork helped his school stand apart from the rest. “I was shocked at first, I couldn’t really believe it, winning such a huge competition,” he said. “Engaging with mentors and working as a team to build a design, I think that’s what set us apart this year.”
The team started working on their project in August 2022.
The RWDC is an annual high school competition run by a public-private partnership with the goal of sustainably increasing the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) workforce.
