Would this work as an engineering project?

[bridgeyman]

I am completely stuck on what I feel is the hardest part of science fair, coming up with a topic. I have been working on one outside project that I would love to continue as an engineering project, but I am not sure if it is "science fair material."

So, first a little bit of background. I am a volunteer programmer at the Christa McAuliffe Space Education Center (http://spacecamputah.org), in Pleasant Grove, Utah. It is not very well known, but perhaps Terik has been there. It is a very unique place where they have space simulators set in the future, and kids come of field trips to run a "mission," like observing a supernova or cracking down on a drug ring. It is a lot of fun, but its main purpose it to be educational. Through the stories that are told, the students can learn about different issues, like slavery, and also get experiences in teamwork and leadership.

Right now I am working on making new programs to run on the simulator's stations. The space ship's controls, if you will. I was hoping this would somehow work as a science fair project. A major goal with these new stations would be to teach more science, especially physics, so the students could see how these things work, and be better prepared to learn about them in a classroom. I would most likely gear this to be an engineering project. Although the end result would be to use this technology for education, most of the project would be focused on the software engineering aspect of making the system. Some engineering problems I would be tackling would be networking, extensibility, and ease of use. I am doing this as a volunteer project, so I don't see this as simply presenting my job as a science fair project. I would also like this system to be flexible enough to work at other locations that the Pleasant Grove Space Center, so that opening a simulator in another school would be possible.

So, what do you think? Usually when I think of an engineering project, I think of an invention that solves a fairly large problem. This would be more a system developed to solve a more specific need. Would this work as a science fair project? Should I narrow the scope, or widen it? Perhaps focusing on a specific part of the project (like our networking system) would be more effective? Perhaps this idea is simply not science fair material at all. I would really like this project to be competitive. Last year I was able to compete at ISEF, and would love the opportunity to go again.

Thank You,
Bridger Maxwell

[davidkallman]

Hi Bridger,

That's interesting work you're doing!

What you've outlined would qualify as an engineering project, particularly if you study existing networking algorithms or devise new algorithms and study them.

It is possible that you could present the results comparing different algorithms as a science fair project.

[bridgeyman]

Thanks for the reply! I think I will go forward with this project. If nothing else, it should be a lot of fun.

[davidkallman]

You're welcome, and that great news!

Please let us know how the project is going, or if you have additional questions. We'll be glad to try to help.

Thanks.