Now in its 26th year, the event brings teams of middle and high school students to the lab to compete with home-built equipment.
Teens wielding power tools and plywood showcased their engineering skills Friday in the annual Invention Challenge at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. Also in evidence: lots of tiny motors, 3D-printed gears, PVC pipe, and duct tape.
First held at JPL in 1998, the event pits middle and high school teams against each other as they attempt to obtain handmade equipment to complete a task that changes annually. For this year’s challenge, dubbed the “Bucket Brigade Competition”, teams were required to build devices capable of moving approximately 2 gallons (8 L) of water from a reservoir to a bucket approximately 16 feet (5 m) away in 60 seconds while meeting a long list of rules.
In total, 18 teams of students from middle and high schools in Los Angeles and Orange County competed. First place went to Arcadia High School’s Team Still Water, which completed the task in just 6.45 seconds. Mission Viejo High’s Team Senior Citizens finished last in 6.71 seconds. Santa Monica High’s Samo Seals finished third with a time of 9.18 seconds.
Five teams from outside the region – four from schools in Colorado and Massachusetts and one team consisting of professional engineers – were also invited to compete. Among them, the “trial and error engineering” team led by retired JPL engineer Alan DeWalt came in first place (repeated from last year). and “Team 6” from Pioneer Charter School of Science in the Boston area took second place (also a repeat performance from 2024). No team qualified for third place.
The judges named Team Clunkers from Mission Viejo High as most artistic, Team 6 from Pioneer Charter School of Science as most unusual, and Team Winning Engineering Team (WET) from Temple City High as most creative.
The event was supported by dozens of volunteers from JPL staff. JPL Fire Chief Dave Dollarhide, familiar with the Bucket Brigade, was the guest judge.
melissa palmer
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.
626-314-4928
melissa.pamer@jpl.nasa.gov
2025-135
