Every March, hundreds of students from central Texas compete in 23 events for Science Olympiad, with topics ranging from Earth Science to Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. The top four teams advance to the state tournament held at Texas A&M University from April 11-12. Of the 132 teams statewide, only four from central Texas qualified.
“When we saw the confirmation that we made it to state, we all started jumping,” president and founder Mahi Jain said. “Our entire team was filled with joy and we all started spamming our team group chats at midnight as soon as we got the news.”
In Air Trajectory, a build event, freshmen Akhilesh Yannam and Satvik Shukla placed third. After competing at regionals for the past three years, their placement earned them a ticket to state, fulfilling a dream the duo had since seventh grade.
“At the beginning of the year, we barely managed to scrape by and out-place our competitors but slowly we were able to improve,” Yannam said. “Then we got to regionals, where we went all out and beat them. Those competitions really boosted us throughout because without our opponents, we wouldn’t be where we are today.”
The purpose of the event is to build a device that accurately launches projectiles to a specific distance and target. One of the biggest challenges they faced was the ball launching at a 45 degree angle instead of a straight line. After multiple design changes and reviewing test videos, they discovered the ball wasn’t loaded correctly into the pipe, causing it to spin unevenly.
“It’s really important to build something, fail and don’t let that setback make you stay back,” Shukla said. “Getting the opportunity to analyze what we did wrong and how we can improve it, then actually going out there, testing it, and still somehow failing, and continuously repeating that cycle was just so humbling but fun at the same time. It’s useful for everyone to be able to experience that and know that failure isn’t the end all, be all.”
Trying to match the official testing space, the pair tested their device in the anticipated competition environment to assure consistency in factors like mechanism, temperature and humidity.
“Even if one tiny thing is off when you’re testing, it affects the vibrations, which in turn affect how the pipe fittings work,” Yannam said. “All the small stuff that you never think about always has such a big effect. Even how far you screw in a nail or how far you are hitting in this nail all makes the biggest difference.”
Being a relatively new team, it came as a shock when the team beat out Grapevine High School by one point, scoring a combined total of 178 points.
“I was scanning the results from top to bottom, and I was expecting us to be somewhere around sixth or seventh place,” Yannam said. “When I saw ‘Rouse A’ in fourth place, I was so excited. That one question someone answered correctly on the test might have been what got us to state. It wasn’t just one person who did everything, it was a collaborative effort from all of us.”
Sophomores Anushri Agrawal and Vaishnavi Guddimella placed third at regionals in Write It to Do It, a team inquiry event where one partner describes a structure for the other to build. The structures are judged based on how closely they match the original model.
“[Write It Do It] is not as ‘sciencey’ as events like Astronomy or Anatomy and Physiology which you might expect to see,” Guddimella said. “It requires a lot of not just communication but also analytical skill on both ends. That ties back into science, which is all about observations and descriptions.”
Compared to other events, Write It Do It relies heavily on trust and ability to understand each other. Guddimella and Agrawal, who have been friends since freshman year, began working together after partnering in Geological Mapping.
“Having good chemistry is really important because I’m able to think about what my partner did when she was writing down the instructions,” Agrawal said. “She might have forgotten to include something, but I know what she’s talking about because I’ve known her for so long, and I know how her brain works.”
Top performing teams qualify for the national tournament, which will be held at University of Nebraska-Lincoln on May 23-24.
“There’s competitors from all over Texas such as Houston, Dallas and even smaller cities,” Jain said. “We’ve put in so many hours together as a team to get to this point and be the second best high school team in the Austin area. Hopefully, with more effort and team spirit, we will secure a spot at the National Tournament.”
*As seen in print