by Yanichka Ariunbold, section editor

The Roar interviewed senior Jedidiah Romo, who participated in the SkillsUSA national competition in Louisville, Kentucky from June 19 through 25.

What kind of event did you compete in at SkillsUSA this year?

SkillsUSA itself is actually a pretty broad competition— there are actually a lot of different events you can compete in. But realistically, it’s just mostly being dedicated to whatever field you’re pursuing. For me personally, it was understanding how to sketch up 3-D objects on a computer and then print them out using a 3-D printer. My event was called Additive Manufacturing, and it was a team event— me and one other person, Jordan Gantt.

What kind of role did team dynamic play in the event?

It was actually pretty important because with me, I tend to get a little stressed out when it comes to events, especially when they’re on a national level. Jordan’s much more relaxed. He was in charge in previous competitions to actually do the printing aspect and everything, like we would bring a 3-D printed part to competition and then they would judge it from there. But at Nationals, they had printers, so we had to design everything there, and they printed it. In the weeks leading up to the competition, Jordan practiced with the 3-D program we used to sketch up our items, and when we got there, he was mostly doing some of the parts that I didn’t have the time to do. It was a very short time crunch, so to have somebody else there who was both relieving the tension and also allowing the project to move along quicker was helpful.

What are the qualifications for Skills USA Nationals?

At Skills District, you had to be first or second place to go to State. And then at State, you had to be first place in order to get to Nationals. When we found out, we felt utter surprise and disbelief. I definitely think we earned it because of the fact that our idea was one of the more creative ones and we executed it pretty well, the 3-D coffee grinder that we made. I know CSHS had a very good engineering design notebook, and that was one of the reasons why they were very close to getting first place. But in the end, our design and the functionality, and I guess, creativity of our idea helped solidify the fact that we could go to Nationals. It looked like it was going to be really close between us and CSHS, and they got second, which was kind of just relief because that meant we could represent Consol at the national level— and what comes with that is attention to the school just because of the fact that we have one of the best Additive Manufacturing programs in Texas.

How did your event work in the competitions leading up to Nationals?

So at the district level, it was utilizing wind power and using it whatever way we could. We were like, ‘We don’t want to go up to the sky because the wind is in the sky.’ So, we were like, ‘Let’s go down and make a wind-powered drill.’ We executed it well, and the 3-D printer did a pretty good job extruding it. At State, the design challenge was anything that had gears in it. It was interesting– a lot of the teams made kitchen appliances. Some other team made a whisk, and it rotated a gear in the center– it was crazy. We made a 3-D coffee grinder, so you would drop in the coffee, and the gears would grind it up. And that’s basically how we got to nationals, conquering those design challenges.

What was your event like at Nationals?

We had multiple design segments, and they were split into three main competitions. The first design competition was about an hour, and we had to to design a pin with a moving part that they would 3-D print. For the second design challenge, we had three hours and 30 minutes to design a catapult that would launch a LEGO man at least ten feet. And it had to be accurate, like hitting a bulls eye six feet away. So it had to have distance and precision basically. Then, the next phase of the competition was the redesign. It was the next day, so they printed all the stuff overnight, and the challenge was to redesign your catapult with the ideas you gained because of the fact that you had a physical copy and you could see what weaknesses the actual catapult had. It was also a lot more professional at Nationals because there were a lot of proficient designers who were very specialized. These people were really good, and it was a lot of pressure, but it was great it was a good environment to learn in. There were a lot of tips and tricks that we learned while we were there, and there were a lot of companies that showed a lot of interest in our competition. I know one company actually donated objects to the prize pool on the last day. A lot of companies have interest in it because 3-D printing is an expanding industry.

What were some of the activities you did during the trip, and what was the most memorable part?

We got time to ourselves. There was an expo, so a lot of companies came. We got a bunch of free gadgets and gizmos, but what mostly mattered was networking and establishing connections with certain companies and providing new opportunities for Consol. There were a couple competitions outside of SkillsUSA and were interesting to think about participating in. Other than, it was Louisville, so it was a very beautiful city. I’m not gonna lie, we spent a lot of time sleeping because spending 5 to 6 hours in front of a computer was very tiring. We got to see a lot of cool attractions while we were there, like the Muhammad Ali museum. One of the days, we went over to the go-carts and spent a ridiculous amount of money going around the track, and it was a lot of fun. It was a good experience overall, the hotel we were in had a lot of activities we could do. The city cuisine was amazing. We spent six days, 19th thru 25th. The most memorable part was when we got to see our parts printed, and that was the debriefing for the competition. We all lined up and saw which catapults could shoot the farthest. As for the most memorable part, I don’t think I can say. There were a lot of great moments at Louisville. It was really just fun because you’re establishing connections and showcasing talent, and there’s one thing you can always say — “I made it to SkillsUSA Nationals.”