Innovation and creativity flourished as Upper School students utilized the process of design thinking during a month-long challenge to design something in the interior of an autonomous vehicle. Advisory teams in grades 9 through 12 came together to design concepts that would improve the non-driving experience.

The Upper School Design Challenge was launched January 29 during a kick-off event with presentations from STEM Fellow and Lower School Principal Heather Murray; CEO - Gaikai at Sony Computer Entertainment America LLC and St. Margaret’s parent David Perry; and Chief Data Scientist for The Aerospace Corporation and St. Margaret’s parent Stuart Kerr. Mr. Kerr explained to students how machines are taught to think, and Mr. Perry helped the students understand how to generate ideas.

Teams met each week in and out of advisory time to conceptualize what the perfect non-driving experience would be like while sitting in an autonomous vehicle.

“This challenge was created to offer a design process experience, design thinking, for our students. “Design thinking is all about solving problems,” said Mrs. Murray. “In today’s world, we prepare our students to meet challenges and better the world with their solutions. Our human condition unifies our needs. The problems we face are the same because, as humans, we are fundamentally interconnected in the areas of economy, technology, knowledge and environment. We chose autonomous driving to practice design thinking because it is the future, super hip and cool and driving is near and dear to Upper School students.”

Upper School Principal Tony Jordan added, “The design challenge provided our students with the opportunity to apply formal classroom learning to a "real time" need. For example, one presentation utilized biomimicry to take unique solutions from the biosphere, as earlier scientists did in using bats and porpoises to develop sonar, and propose novel applications to the design challenge. The divergent thinking and problem solving ability of our students was very impressive.”

One team’s design sought to reduce the need for air conditioning in cars. They proposed the use of heat resistant metal for the exterior, as well as the application of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s nanocrystal coating to windows, which allows the passenger to control the light and heat entering the car. Other teams came up with ideas including ejection seats, similar to those found in military aircraft; an all-inclusive heads-up-display on the windshield and integrated wifi.

On February 26, each advisory group presented their ideas to their grade level. Once the presentations were complete, students in each grade level voted digitally on their favorite. Following are the winning teams:

Grade 9 – Mr. Thomas Spellmire’s Advisory: Andrew Ahn, Charles Bienert, Paul Boranian, Christopher Chan, Kenton Dow, Mason Harline, Ethan Hill, Alexander Kratzer, Declan Landau, Andrew Vollero, Kevin Zhu

Grade 10 – Dr. Masami Stahr Advisory: Alexandra Acacio, Evette Chung, Peyton Herrera, Madeleine Hughes, Julia Kramer, Alexandra Landaas, Alison Meany, Rhea Sachdeva

Grade 11 – Mr. Ryan Dahlem Advisory: Luke Desforges, Nicolas Gitter, Mitchell Hart, Lew Jacobs, Chris Krantz, Julien Thurin, Charles Toney, Jack Westhead, Ryan Wilson

Grade 12 – Mrs. Jillian Gray Advisory: Ginna Byun, Sarah Engel, Denise Garcia,
Alyssa Maita, Natalia Ohanesian, Sofia Sewell, Alexandra Vollero, Jennifer Wechsler

“The design challenge was a really good opportunity for students to show their creativity and integrate their interests into a project that emulated real-world design situations. It was pretty clear by the great diversity of methods of addressing the challenge of designing the interior of a self-driving car, that working together and the sharing of ideas can have the potential to create some really interesting and unique technologies,” said Charles Toney, grade 11.

In the afternoon, each winning advisory team presented their concepts to the entire Upper School, Mr. Perry, Mr. Kerr and Mrs. Murray. The winning teams each won a catered advisory snack from Panera Bread, along with an off campus lunch privilege.

Senior Sarah Engel said, “Our advisory enjoyed the challenge of identifying an important problem and employing our creativity to propose a solution. It was also a blast to hear all the other innovative ideas!”