When You Play with Fire…

Organized by the Department of Fire Protection Engineering, University of Maryland, the only such undergraduate program offered in the world, the design challenge exposed student participants to basic fire protection engineering concepts. Notre Dame Prep was one of two new schools competing in this year’s competition, which required teams to build model replicas of furnished, two-room apartments complete with smoke detection and sprinkler systems, which were then—you guessed it!—set on fire. The teams were judged on cost of the project, livability of the model, the time needed to detect the fire, time need to suppress the fire, and the extent to which the fire spread.

 

The students were allowed two burns, the second of which they were able to tweak any identified glitches in their initial models and coding, elevating the level of intensity of the competition.

 

“I enjoyed the crunch time before the competition where we were able to put everything together,” commented Katherine Berger, one of three freshmen on the team; the other three students were eleventh graders.

 

Unlike the other participating schools, which entered teams as part of a class, the NDP team was comprised of members of the newly formed NDP FPE Club. A total of 20 teams from five schools competed, with NDP finishing in the top 10, with the third-fastest detection score among all the teams and the highest possible livability score.

 

As a new participant in the competition, Notre Dame hosted Dr. James Milke, dean of the School of Fire Protection Engineering at the University of Maryland, where he met the students, reviewed their designs, and saw first-hand the hub of NDP engineering and design, the Jane Kroh Satterfield Innovation Wing.

 

On competition day at the host site, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Fire Research Laboratory, the students and faculty moderators were given a tour of the only large-scale fire science research laboratory dedicated to fire and arson criminal investigations in the U.S. 

 

"This competition was a wonderful way to expose students to such a unique career opportunity in engineering. We are grateful to benefit from such a collaborative learning experience, where students interacted with professional mentors in the industry of fire protection, as well as graduate students in the FPE program doing research at the University of Maryland," said Mary Agnes Sheridan, NDP’s director of STEAM.  "The students particularly enjoyed being in the remarkable ATF facility. Plus, the team effort among the students, across skills set and classes--Big Sisters mentoring Little Sisters--was amazing!”

The fire prevention competition is one component of NDP's multi-faceted STEAM program that combines curriculum and co-curricular experiences designed to encourage and prepare young women for careers in STEAM-related fields.