Does the engineering flowchart fascinate you? Do you like to play with WD-40 or build different projects that utilize the principles of math and science? If so, the Jesuit Engineering Society wants you to join now.
On April 9th, the Jesuit Engineering Society (JES) hosted a research booth at the Environmental Education Initiative (EEI) at Fair Park in Dallas with hopes of earning funding to support their water fracking project. With the leadership of Diego Narvaez ’16, Jeremy Lane ’16, Jack Whelan ’16, Luke Thievagt ’18, and Jacob Totah ’18, the table was able to earn a 2nd place nomination among the eight teams represented at the booth. Several other students who participated in the research, but did not attend the summit, included Royce Allred ’18, Joey Merkel ’16, Joe Carver ’17, and Michael Boyson ’16. The funding contributes not only monetary donations for the upcoming school year but also a chance to research with the University of North Texas’ science department in the fall of 2016.
Sophomores Luke Theivagt and Jacob Totah also had the pleasure of acting as the lead engineers of JES’s Aquaponics project. Totah enthusiastically described the project as “a system of aquaculture in which the waste produced by farmed fish or other aquatic animals supplies nutrients for plants grown hydroponically, which in turn purifies the water.” In addition, Thievagt loved seeing JES’s efforts pay off at the research summit: “Many schools have ideas on how to save water, and they pitch them to Dallas reps. Dallas can fund these projects with this research, and awards will be handed out. The reps are the city employees that judged the competition. For three hours they walked around and asked questions to each table and decided who gets funding. Our team got 2nd place. 8 teams presented data and research and all of them won cumulative monetary donations for their efforts. He was there for the fracking research and how to save water.”
Over the course of the year, JES has had many successes with research, experiments, projects, and guests lectures. In February, JES was shown around UTSW Medical Center as part of the Neurology Lab Tour with Dr. Christine Ochoa, GSR; Junmei Fan, Sr. Research Associate; and Terry Ng, MSTP.
Congratulations to the following seniors who served as presidents or vice presidents this year: Jeremy Lane ’16, Joey Parks ’16, Josh Thias ’16, and Michael Boyson ’16. If you have a passion to explore and build and learn about science and engineering after school, be sure to join JES for a small cost in the 2016-2017 school year!
