Fayette’s elementary, middle and high school students outdid themselves this year at the West Georgia Technology Competition, taking home 71 percent of the first-place awards, topping last year’s 32 percent. As if that was not enough, they snapped up 46 percent of the top three placements, and this was just the school system’s second trip to the competition.

A total of 49 first-place winners from nine schools are now gearing up to compete at the Georgia Student Technology Competition in March.  They are (Flat Rock Middle) Ceres Bousquet, animation; Kyle Dyce, digital game design; Tighler Allen and Lila Omar, graphic design; Christine Sharper and Ashlee Taylor, internet applications; Zaria Washington and Siarra Brown, mobile apps; (J.C. Booth Middle) Valerie Koukoutsis and Isabella Hickey, audio production; Nick Hacker and Gabe Mawanda, device modification; Ali Ermolaev and Lark Sisk, digital photo production; Drew Lakly and Christian Clark, programming challenge; Jackson Lovejoy, project programming; Irene Rotger and Rebekah Bushmire, video production; (McIntosh High) Katherine Barry, 3D modeling; Diamond Nguyen, audio production; Jiaming Zhang, digital game design; Ian MCKeiman and Jiaming Zhang, programming challenge; Jason Wheeler, 3D modeling; Leigh Wheeler, graphic design; Sam Triplett and Mark Ni, programming challenge; (Oak Grove Elementary) Saket Sonone, audio production; Eliza Huber, graphic design; Yashwin Ramesh Babu, mobile apps; Manish Gurugari and Parth Mahajan, multimedia applications; Jordan McKee, digital photo production; (Peachtree City Elementary) Aarush Hemachandran, 3D modeling; Jessica Yuan and Sara Hoti, robotics; (Rising Starr Middle) Liam Begley, robotics; (Robert J. Burch Elementary) Simone Antoine and Jaelynn Edu, digital photo production; Kierstin Smutherman and Reagan Harvey, productivity design; Sam Brown, internet applications; (Spring Hill Elementary) Caitlin Giacommetto and Lillie VanVorst, internet applications; (Starr’s Mill High) Ayaan Bakaly and Felipe Schwantes, video production; Dorothy Daniel, animation; and Bekah Algaze, multimedia applications.

Projects are judged on the intended purpose, understanding and mastery of the software used, creativity in design and presentation, completeness and functionality, and documentation. Not only are students required to use programs or applications to demonstrate their projects, but they must also explain the various aspects of the creation of the project, defend their choice of software, and answer judges’ questions. Students have less than 15 to demonstrate and explain their projects

The West Georgia Technology Competition is an annual technology competition for students in the West Georgia region of the state. The competition is open to students who attend public, private and home schools in counties of Carroll, Coweta, Fayette, Harris, Heard, Meriwether, and Troup, as well as the City of Carrollton.

Only first place winners advance to the state competition, which will be held March 9 in Macon.