The Gross Catholic’s Engineering Team program is designed to stimulate students’ interest and excitement in engineering, architecture and related sciences, while defining and researching a topic or problem relevant to their interests. The Engineering Team competes in the Society of American Mechanical Engineering's annual high school competition held each spring. The team meets after school and in the evenings, with guidance from professional architects and engineers, to develop their designs. Engineering Team students are regularly admitted the University of Nebraska at Omaha Peter Kiewit Institute as Scott Scholars.
Two teams worked on architectural, mechanical, and electronic projects. For the architectural project, students evaluated the current weight room at Gross Catholic and proposed their own design for a new weight room. For the mechanical and electronic projects, students used small scale microprocessors and accelerometers to measure the acceleration of a football helmet during practice or a game.
In 2011, the team earned an Award of Distinction for their project to renovate the St. Augustine Indian Mission School in Winnebago, Nebraska. They received gold medals in teamwork and presentation, and silver medals in applied science, innovation, research, technology, and the written proposal. The team worked with Cougar alumnus Patrick Rainbolt '03, a construction engineer for Kiewit Building Group.
Advisor: Steve Hamersky
