The Odyssey of the Mind team from Kilmer Middle School won first place in the regional competition for OoTM held on March 9th. They get to compete with other regional winners at the State level on April 6th, 2019. The team members are:

Mishti Chowbey

Avani Mehta

Ramya Ramesh

Rhea Chatterjee

Riya Bajpai

In addition to winning the first place, the team was awarded with the Ranatra Fusca award. The Ranatra Fusca Creativity Award represents the essence of the Odyssey of the Mind. It is presented to teams or individuals who exhibit exceptional creativity, either through some aspect of their problem solution, or an extraordinary idea beyond the problem solution. A successful problem solution is not a criterion for winning the award; rather, the award is a way to acknowledge and encourage creative thinking and risk-taking.

While presenting this prestigious award, the judges provided their comments below:

"This team showed exceptional creativity in propulsion engineering and design that echoed the team’s overall “book” theme. Seated on a platform with casters, the driver of the vehicle created movement by pushing and pulling the sides of an overhead A-shaped structure, which was inspired by a team-member’s easel board. The team reported that they tried many engineering approaches before coming up with this articulated-earthworm design which was mirrored in a team members’ “bookworm” costume.

The problem also required that the vehicle be disassembled and carried in a suitcase, which the team solved by creating special folding joints.  To help the judges, the suitcase had transparent sides making the mechanism easy to see.

The Problem 1 judging team recognizes the teamwork and creativity of the Division 2, Omer to the Rescue team from Kilmer Middle School."