Red Bank Regional senior Jose Ramirez recently took first place at the State Technology Student Association Competition, for his portfolio and project in Transportation Modeling.

Press release from Red Bank Regional High School

For students like Jose Ramirez, assembling a “modeling portfolio” means something far different from photo-studio head shots and location couture shoots. Like his fellow entrants in the State Technology Student Association competition, the Red Bank Regional High School senior employs three-dimensional modelmaking to solve engineering design challenges — and during last month’s TSA event at the College of New Jersey, the Red Bank resident’s skills enabled him to achieve First Place for his portfolio and project in the category of Transportation Modeling.

A student in RBR’s Academy of Pre-Engineering, Jose attends TSA events as an extra-curricular club which enters competitions with other STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) students from around the country. Having taken top honors in the April event, Jose is now eligible to enter his project in the national competition which takes place in June in Nashville, TN.

For the competition in which Jose bested entrants from all over the Garden State, participants use only designated materials and follow required specifications to design and produce a scale model of a vehicle that fits the assigned design problem — in this year’s case, a design for a riding lawnmower. The judges also take appearance and realism into consideration.

RBR technology teacher and advisor Kathryn Hawley states, “Last year Jose placed third in this same competition. He worked so hard, and this year he earned the first place finish! We are so proud of him.”