Original Press Release:
Tenafly High School Library Hosts Landmark
MADE IN THE USA
“William Francis Gibbs Interscholastic Engineering and Design Competition.”
TENAFLY, NJ April 25, 2018 – This coming Tuesday, May 1, 2018, beginning at 8:00 a.m. and ending at 2:00 p.m. Tenafly High School Library will host ten competing high school teams of six students each in a landmark engineering and design (STEM) competition with an authentic “Made in the USA” theme. Each team is a part of the New Jersey Interscholastic STEM League.
This competition is named after William Francis Gibbs, the great American naval architect who designed and built the SS United States, the fastest ocean liner ever to cross the Atlantic and perhaps the greatest example of all-American engineering and design. To date, no other ocean liner ever built beat its record time in crossing the Atlantic! The SS United States has been out of service since 1969 and sits idle at a Philadelphia pier awaiting its future fate.
Preceding the student competition, students will learn about the SS United States from representatives of the SS United States Conservancy – a foundation dedicated to preserving America’s greatest, safest, and fastest ocean liner. They will learn from architect Elvis Negron, as he presents his thesis project – a suggested preservation and repurposing of “America’s Flagship.”
Launched with historic background, each student team will be given various materials and 2 ½ hours to design and build a model ship for speed. Each team will be judged on their documentation, a CAD drawing, prototype, and presentation.
The concluding boat race will take place in an adjoining courtyard’s outdoor classroom temporarily filled with water to serve as the “Atlantic.”