TSA State                       March 3, 2023

Written by: McKenzie Guertin 

The Technology Student Association (TSA)–not to be confused with Airport Security–is a nationwide organization aimed towards students with STEM interests. When the organization was originally founded in 1978 it was originally known as the American Industrial Arts Student Association (AIASA). As the organization continued to grow they officially changed its name to the Technology Student Association in 1988. As of now, TSA is the oldest student organization dedicated to students who are interested in technology and engineering. Included in TSA are three different conferences: Districts, State, and Nationals. 

During the State conference this year, ThunderRidge won first place for Webmaster, Second place for Mines Formula, Second place for Drone Challenge, and Third place for Catapult. Three of the four events won are eligible to move up to TSA Nationals if the teams would like to compete. Unfortunately, Mines Formula is a State only competition and cannot qualify for the National Conference. 

This year ThunderRidge participated in Webmaster and won first place. Webmaster involves creating and launching a website and giving a presentation about the website that follows the TSA prompt guidelines. For TSA this year, any team participating in Webmaster had to create a website about a company that would make someone an astronaut. They had to provide information about promotion, basic information, the cost, planning, training, vehicles, safety, and launch recovery. Students who participated in Webmaster had to go through a pre-conference where they launched their website and made any last minute changes. For their semi-final round, they would be interviewed about the website’s creation and how well they answered the prompt.

Mines Formula is the State only event that ThunderRidge won this year. The event is run by School of Mines students who are on the Formula One team run by the school. For TSA students they had to design a steering wheel for a formula one car. Normally, the design is not done in a 3D software like CAD but this year the Mines Formula team went above and beyond and used CAD when designing their steering wheel. Computer-Aided Design (CAD) is a difficult software to master, therefore the TSA judges were impressed with the team’s ability to use and correctly understand CAD for the design. 

For the first time, ThunderRidge participated in the Drone Challenge and won second place. The Drone Challenge involves creating and flying a drone that can complete a series of tasks related to the TSA theme and guidelines. This year the theme was Carnival games and the teams had to create a drone that would deliver three bean bags and three rings while flying through a set path within six minutes. For their preliminary round, they would set up their drone and their pit areas in order to be judged. If the judges deem the drone safe to fly they would then perform a test flight and the top 16 scores on the testing would be evaluated. Out of those 16 only 12 would progress to the semi-final round. During the semi-final round judges would take each team for a five-minute interview and they would then evaluate all of the points to determine the winner.

Catapult Design goes hand and hand with the Drone Challenge. The event requires the teams to create a catapult within the state guidelines. There was no theme this year as the teams just had to follow the guidelines and create a Catapult. 

Despite ThunderRidge not winning every event at TSA State, it was a success. It was a learning experience for many who joined the club this year and it builds on the experiences from students who’ve been in the club for over a year. Everyone is looking forward to what next year will hold for TSA and are looking forward to creating new memories.