Fayette’s elementary, middle and high school students had a great showing this year at the West Georgia Regional Student Technology Competition, taking home 46 percent of all first place awards. Overall, they snapped up 32 percent of the top three placements. This marks the school system’s third year participating in the competition. 

A total of 48 first-place winners from 10 schools are now gearing up to compete at the Georgia Student Technology Competition, which has been rescheduled from the in-person event that was slated for March to a virtual competition. Judging will take place the week of May 13-20, winners will be posted on the Georgia Student Technology Competition website (www.gastc.org) after the judging is completed.

Students competing in this year’s state competition include (Bennett’s Mill Middle) Princeton Pulliman, internet application; (Fayette County High) Jett Butler, animation; (Flat Rock Middle) Maddy Lohr, animation; Quentin Lunderman and Colin Janeski, audio production; Alan Nguyen, digital game design; Nicholas Jenkins, graphic design; (J.C. Booth Middle) Aadi Vaidya, 3D modeling; Sadid Kabir and Nikhi Chikhliker, 3D modeling; Gabe Mawanda and Nitish Sudhakar, device modification; Ali Emolaev and Lark Sisk, digital photo production; Sharaf Kabir, productivity design; Drew Lakly and Christian Clark, programming challenge; Irene Rotger and Jessica Marhefka, video production; (McIntosh High) Marc Van Zyl, device modification; Sam Triplett and Matt Manalo, digital game design; Jiaming Zhang and Madhavraj Premkumar, mobile apps; Jiaming Zhang and Ian Mckeirman, programming challenge; Brandon Hayes and Andrew Graffeo, programming challenge; Klaire Johnson, video production; (Oak Grove Elementary) Risha Naidu and Pakhi Singh, animation; Cara Greenberg and Angelica Bacigalupo, internet application; Chinmayi Ravikumar and Venya Nagesh Kotyal, mobile apps; Vaughn Kerrane and Aaron Creal, project programming; (Peachtree City Elementary) Aarush Hemachandran, 3D modeling; Vyom Shah, multimedia application; (Robert J. Burch Elementary) Simone Antoine and Jalynn Edu, digital photo production; (Rising Starr Middle) Liam Begley, mobile apps: Alexa Waters and Abby Morris, multimedia application; (Starr’s Mill High) Luke Walters, digital photo production; Bekah Algaze, multimedia application; and Felipe Schwantes and Ayaan Bakaly, video production.

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 minutes 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.