Westinghouse works with students to build ‘cool contraptions’
Students from nine Pittsburgh area school districts gathered at the Westinghouse Global Headquarters in Cranberry Township on Friday to compete in the Chris Savinda Memorial Chain Reaction Contraption Contest.
Twelve teams built and presented “cool contraptions” that, through a series of more than 20 steps, completed a task. In this year’s challenge, many of the machines used magnets, marbles or dominoes to trigger planting a seed.
The event is the culmination of a monthlong effort to introduce students to science, technology, engineering and math.
“We have community engagement that aims to build sustainable, safe and smart communities and we see this as something that hits all three,” said Meg Ringler, a communications manager with Westinghouse.
Students started by submitting a preliminary design drawing before submitting a series of progress photos to show the machine’s evolution. Then, they built a machine to accomplish the task.
Engineers volunteer their time to guide the teams, Ringler said.
On Friday, the students’ work was shown off in front of a panel of judges. The teams had to demonstrate their machine and make a verbal presentation to judges.
“It shows there’s a thousand ways into STEM, even if math and statistics aren’t your thing,” Ringler said about the public speaking portion of the event.
The contest held Friday was the company’s 27th annual event. It’s named for a colleague who passed away from cancer in 2023.
“He was the driving force behind this,” Ringler said. “He wanted to connect students with STEM activities.”
She said Westinghouse currently employs at least one person who has previously participated in the contest as a teen.
Initially planned to include 12 schools, the Friday event’s nine schools in attendance included Hempfield, Springfield, Franklin Regional, Brentwood, Indian Creek, North Allegheny, Baldwin and Penn-Trafford.
