Bucharest Students Win Global Automotive Design Challenge Sponsored By Honeywell

Middle school students take top honors in competition focused on math and science curriculum in annual Honeywell toy car competition

BUCHAREST, ROMANIA -- March 16, 2015: Full of drive and passion for automotive engineering, four middle school students from School No. 174 Constantin Brancusi were named champions of Honeywell's seventh annual Student Automotive Design Challenge (SADC), having distinguished themselves from their global peers.

The annual Honeywell competition was comprised of more than 350 students representing communities where Honeywell Transportation Systems has facilities globally. Honeywell employee volunteers and local teachers mentor the students through weekly classroom activities during a two-month period. The curriculum uses math, science, technology, social studies and language arts as students are instructed in researching, designing, marketing and engineering a functioning electric gear-driven toy car that must meet performance standards.

The winning team from Constantin Brancusi named its project CSIRobotics and was comprised of the following students: Alexandru Tudor Sima, project manager; Rares Stefan Rosu, engineering and technical manager; Mara Corina Gabriela Iordache, design manager; and, Mihai Silviu Chelariu, marketing manager.

"Honeywell's SADC program has provided a creative approach in attracting our students toward math, science and technology in way which was a lot of fun. Having the volunteers from Honeywell's locations help our students really drove home future opportunities for them as they had the chance to apply their theoretical knowledge of these subjects in practice in front of experts – and they enjoyed every moment of it," said Rodica Onofrei, a teacher at Constantin Brancusi and SADC program liaison.

The CSIRobotics team first won its local school competition before submitting its final video project for judging along with local winners from other student teams in the United States, Switzerland, Mexico, China, and France. Honeywell employees around the world selected the team. The winning team will be recognized by Honeywell throughout its global operations and will be hosted at an industry activity linked to math, science or automotive technology.

"The annual event is a big deal for our global employee base, and we had a record number of votes this year to illustrate the interest in this growing program," said Honeywell Transportation Systems Chief Technology Officer Craig Balis. "I'd like to thank Ms. Onofrei and all the teachers and school officials globally who help make this a success for the kids. We truly hope that all the students who participate had fun doing so and will pursue with a sincere interest their math and science studies. At Honeywell, we like to think that perhaps these are the first steps toward creating the next generation of engineering talent for companies to someday employ."

The SADC Challenge is co-sponsored by Honeywell and SAE International. Small groups of middle school students aged 11 to 14 employ a multi-disciplinary curriculum into the development of their final project. During the six to eight week in-class school curriculum, the students are connected to Honeywell volunteers, who mentor and guide them through this process, giving the students an opportunity to connect and engage with the automotive industry.

For more information, please visit the Honeywell SADC Challenge Facebook