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NORTHFIELD Presented with a real-world problem of ensuring employee safety while still being efficient, Pioneer Valley Regional School students put their engineering and design skills to the test Thursday.

The students in John Heffernans Engineering Design 1 and 2 classes were presented a delivery problem by Nick Stevens, the manager of Greenfields Coca Cola Bottling Co.: how can the company make sure employees are safe and efficient while delivering 75 to 150 pounds of product up flights of stairs? Students were given six weeks to come up with designs and show them off to a panel of judges consisting of Stevens, Principal Kevin Burke, science teacher Emma Harnisch, and University of Massachusetts engineering professors Jim Lagrant and Steve de Bruyn Kops.

Students were presented with the challenge of designing gizmos and tools that would help a delivery employee, who normally lifts a dolly of product up the stairs, quickly move the beverages with the help of pulleys, machines and motors.

Joey Seaman, a freshman, and Levi Moran, a junior, designed an intervaled ascending mechanism that used a motor to power a four-wheeled machine that could drive up stairs. The boys were awarded first place in the competition, while Ben Goodwin and Alex McClelland were awarded second place.

We wanted it to be easy to use, Joey said. If you had to do training to use this, that would take time and money.

They said their design process faced several challenges and bottlenecks, but they soon came up with their plan, which incorporated wheels, the structure of the machine and programming the motor.

It was fun to build a robot to the best of our abilities, Joey said, with Levi adding it was great to have this creative project that was based on a real-world challenge.

While observing students projects and presentations, Heffernan said it was nice to see the finished products because, even though he sees the kids every day, he doesnt fully get to take in the projects until theyre done.

They really dug deep into this problem, he said.

Seniors Jayden Fox and Caleb Seaman designed a pulley system that pulled a cart up the stairs. Based on their calculations, the pulley system would be able to pull 70 pounds of product if the design was scaled up to actual size.

It was the easiest thing to do with the least amount of failure, Jayden said. If it helps the workers, its worth it.

Jayden said he and Caleb were faced with several challenges in designing their machine because applying engineering principles is not always a plug-and-play process in the real world.

When you start doing it theres always something that doesnt add up, Jayden said. Your first idea is not always your best idea.

Junior Connor McHaffie designed a self-lifting dolly attachment that required no motors or pulleys, only the power of the worker, which was supplemented with an additional wheel.

Theres a lot of different approaches you can take, he said. It was cool thinking about making a solution for something that might help people.

Both UMass professors said they were impressed by the students work and how they responded to a problem presented by a customer, which is what professional engineers do every day. When the project began, Stevens spoke to the kids in a Zoom session about the problem he proposed and what his expectations were.

What I really liked is how they have a real-world problem and they talked to the customer, Lagrant said, noting the students took the economic and worker impacts of the projects they were designing into account.

De Bruyn Kops added that the students took engineering principles into account, while also working on a tight timeline, much like real engineers.

Its really neat, he said about the project, noting that engineers need to come up with the best possible designs for a problem. You cant disregard the science, but you cant wait to get the answer.

Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com or 413-930-4081.

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Presented with real-world problem, Pioneer students use engineering chops to find solutions - The Recorder