Traffic jams are an ever-increasing problem in metropolitan areas of the country with seemingly no solution in sight That hasn’t deterred the students in the Academy of Engineering (AOE) at the Hialeah Gardens High School in Florida from taking action in a class project designed to solve the traffic congestion around their school.
A group of 30 students in the school’s Academy of Engineering completed Phase I of the project that was presented to the Florida Department of Transportation. The presentation received rave reviews and was completed with the help of the P&G Engineering Company which provided professional guidance to the students, according to an article submitted to Florida Construction News by publicist Bob Levy.
The Academy of Engineering is part of NAF, a national network of education, business and community leaders who work together to ensure high school students are college, career and future ready. During the 2015-2016 school year nearly 89.000 students attended 718 NAF academies across 36 states, including D.C. and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
“The students haven’t stopped talking about this project,” said Alex Garrido, an engineering teacher at the school who also served as the project’s in-house supervisor. “The students not only worked on the project but had to present it in front of people which helped sharpen up on their presentation skills.”
Garrido also explained the amount of work that went into the project including having the students research the data, analyze the traffic pattern problem and then come up with solutions. Additionally, the students had the opportunity to work with traffic engineers in the field to develop their analysis and conclusions.
The students had the opportunity to display their project at a recent NAF benefit before over 400 guests that included top executives from major corporations around the country. The Hialeah Gardens High School AOE was invited to the event after being named a “Distinguished Academy”, an honor given to a select few high performing NAF academies nationwide.
At this point the Florida Department of Transportation is looking at the recommendations to try and come up with cost-effective solutions. One of those solutions includes developing a mobile app where students can carpool with other students with the help of GPS technology.
Half of the students were seniors with the other half being made up of juniors in order to allow them to continue working on the Phase II of the project next year when any recommendations will be implemented.