Future Engineers Challenge Winner Honored Again

June 17, 2016

Sydney Vernon, one of the winners of the inaugural Future Engineers Challenge, with her winning entry, the VEG-01 system. Vernon’s essay about the device, “The Veggie: One Giant Leap,” took third place in the sixth- to eighth-grade category in the 2016 EngineerGirl Responsible Engineering Essay Contest. (Photo courtesy of NASA)

Sydney Vernon, one of the young winners of the inaugural Future Engineers Challenge, has been honored once again. Vernon, a seventh-grade student from Open Window School in Bellevue, Wash., was a recent prize winner in the 2016 EngineerGirl Responsible Engineering Essay Contest, which was sponsored by the National Academy of Engineering.

Vernon took third place in the national competition's category for sixth- to eighth-grade students with her essay titled “The Veggie: One Giant Leap.” The paper detailed the benefits of the Veg-01 system, or the Veggie, the device she designed to enable astronauts to grow vegetables in microgravity. Red romaine lettuce was recently grown using the device. After sampling the lettuce, which was grown in the International Space Station, astronaut Scott Kelly tweeted, “It was one small bite for man, one giant leap for #NASAVEGGIE.” Vernon won $100 for placing third in her category.

Vernon took first place in the junior category of the Future Engineer 3D Printing in Space Challenge last year with her Veg-01 system, a two-section, water-conserving planter that would allow astronauts to grow plants on the ISS. At the time she was a sixth-grader at Open Window School. Her prizes included a 3D printer, which was donated directly to her school. The Future Engineer Space Challenge program was developed in collaboration with NASA and the ASME Foundation in 2014 to help teach young people about 3D printing and engineering design.

To read Vernon's award-winning essay, visit www.engineergirl.org/GetThere/Contest/Winners/2016Winners/29414.aspx. To view the entire list of 2016 EngineerGirl Responsible Engineering Essay Contest winners, visit www.nae.edu/Projects/MediaRoom/20095/149240/153457.aspx. For more information on the Future Engineers program, visit www.futureengineers.org.

For details on ASME’s K-12 engineering education initiatives, contact Patti Jo Snyder, Programs & Philanthropy, at snyderp@asme.org.