National Engineering Design Competition

The theme for the 2020-21 MESA USA National Engineering Design Competition (NEDC) is Designing for Equity.

The Creative Reaction Lab explains that “Equity-Centered Community Design is a unique creative problem solving process based on equity, humility-building, integrating history and healing practices, addressing power dynamics, and co-creating with the community. This design process focuses on a community’s culture and needs to create a future with equity for all.”

For this project, student teams will identify an individual or group who experiences some type of inequity (i.e., a user). Using a microprocessor as the key component of the design, teams will employ human-centered design practices to engineer a solution. Teams must use at least one of the following microprocessors as the main component of their design: Arduino, Circuit Playground Express, and/or Micro:bit.

National Engineering Design Competition Website

“There’s nothing I believe in more strongly than getting young people interested in science and engineering, for a better tomorrow, for all humankind.”

Bill Nye

Design Challenges

The MESA Program is built around our design challenges. Every year, MESA works to provide engineering design challenges developed to provide students opportunities to:

  • Learn and Implement the Engineering Design Process
  • Gain exposure to new areas of STEM like Human Centered Design, Renewable Energy, Computer Science, Additive Manufacturing, Mechanical Engineering, and Civil Engineering.
  • Develop 21st Century skill sin critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and communication