two young men, whiteboard, U.S. flag, trophy, medallions

CVA juniors Seth Brownrigg and Eamon Miller took top honors in the 13th Annual Air Force  Research Laboratory (AFRL) Challenge Competition at the Innovare Advancement Center in Rome over Spring Break. The two bested teams from six area schools and earned $3,000 scholarships.

According to the AFRLS website, "The Challenge Competition is an annual competitive STEM initiative for local high school students. It is held during a week when students are on a school break and its intent is to provide a more realistic view into the types of high-tech problems the nation is facing today, and how engineers and researchers go about dissecting and solving these problems. The best explanation to describe the competition is 'mental marathon.'"

The teams were presented with the problem on Monday, then had three days to interact with AFRL engineers to develop a solution. This year's competition challenged teams to identify faces in images using Artificial Intelligence and neural networks. Judges select the winners on Friday morning.

The competition was sponsored by Indium Corporation and by Stewart’s Shops - Griffiss location, Floyd Ave, Rome.

Congratulations Seth and Eamon!