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By Ally Nguyen

The seniors’ projects involved airplane lavatory efficiency, and they placed second to receive an innovation award from the KC Stem Alliance.

Seniors enrolled in the Engineering Development and Design class presented their projects at the eighth annual Senior Showcase hosted by the KC Stem Alliance on Tuesday, April 23. Seniors Aniston Cumbie, Andrew Thomas, Harry Ahrenholtz and Matthew Richle’s project, which seeks to make airplane lavatory usage more efficient, placed second to receive an innovation award.

For Cumbie’s group, a huge portion of the planning process was ensuring there was enough time to complete their project.

“First, we started with coming up with our problem of airplane bathrooms being a confusing process that is confusing for passengers. We researched common airplane layouts and how many bathrooms were usually on an airplane, and we developed a solution that included a queue for the bathroom that the passengers could answer whenever we needed to go,” Cumbie said. “I learned a lot about time management and the research process.”

Senior Zach Steiger’s group required slightly more research on the political side for their proposed solution to increase traffic control on Monticello Road, specifically outside of Mill Valley High School.

“I think we did an absolutely phenomenal job given the tedious city politics and metropolitan affairs,” Steiger said.

Additionally, senior Seth Hobson, who was also a part of Steiger’s group, believes their project was unique because it was a simulation as opposed to a new product.

“We collected all of our data and crunched those numbers, then we proposed a solution in a simulation,” Hobson said. “I think we did a great job; we obliterated the expectations for our group. We received two perfect scores out of four judges.”

Cumbie believes the experience was memorable, as she’s been looking forward to her senior project since she first began taking engineering classes.

“In the innovation portion we did really well; we put a lot of research and time into our project,” Cumbie said. “We won the innovator’s award, so it was a really good showcase.”