Two dedicated Val Tech high school seniors got out of bed early on a Saturday morning-on Halloween no less-to represent Boeing in the Second Annual Pumpkin Launch, sponsored by Future Scientists & Engineers of America and the Discovery Science Center. For the second straight year, the event was held at Titan Stadium at Cal State Fullerton.

Last year, at the inaugural event, Team Boeing, comprised of ICBM engineers, came in third place. This year, David Shieh, Senior manager, SoCal Regional Mechanical Function and principle organizer of the Boeing Pumpkin Launcher effort, wanted to get the high school interns involved since this summer's crop of prospective engineers showed such promise with a similar catapult device.

The Valencia High students included Dennis Nguyen and Tyler Lim who were responsible for the Pumpkin Launcher integration and test. Troy High students were also on the Boeing team.

Team Boeing captured the top prize with direct hits on the target on two of its three attempts. The second place team was only able to hit a target with some collateral debris. Out of eight competitors there were not any other hits. Additionally, the Boeing team had the quickest cycle time (from launch to reload-including adjustment for projectile and angle-to re-launch). This allowed for more launches during the practice period to fine tune the accuracy.

The reason why the Boeing team has had consistent success in this contest, said David Shieh, is the same reason that Boeing successfully competes for aerospace contracts: accuracy and repeatability. "In their summer internship, these high school students seriously studied the engineering principles behind the catapult and how changing variables affected the firing results. For the Pumpkin Launch, they were able to eliminate a variable by inserting a constant weight for the missile-the pumpkin." They used a two pound medicine ball to fill in for a two pound pumpkin for the trials.