Student of the Year Awards

Congratulations to the following Students of the Year.  A mere certificate cannot describe how amazing you are, so please allow me to elaborate a bit.

Monoara Khatun:  (Award - Academic Excellence) What can be said about Monoara?  Without a doubt Monoara holds the highest GPA for the year.  In addition to her academic excellence, she is also a very fine draftsperson and model maker. Her motto:  "I got this!"

Sam Pecoraro:  (Award - Dedication)  Sam was my "go to guy."  Whenever something needed to be done, he did it.  Whenever a project was given, he exceeded all limits.  Whenever I missed something, or made a mistake, he corrected me.  Whenever I said, "Get it done", Sam would reply, "No problem, Mr. Z."

Pablo Izquierdo:  (Award - Excellence in drafting and model making)  Pablo was easily the "best hands" on person this year.  He can draw anything, and I was surprised to see he could make just about anything out of chipboard.  Whenever he designed something (complex, as always) I would say "Don't forget...you have to make a model of this."  His reply? " Yeah...I can do it."

You all make it real.  Your talent at this stage of your life will benefit you greatly in years to come.  Thank you some much for being who you are.  Best Always, Mr. Z

Final Model Installed

Emerald Estates was installed in the main lobby of CTEA this past Saturday. As expected, everyone is in awe of this massive undertaking. Great work!! Special thanks to Nick Lugaro, Elvin Shikder and Pablo Izquierdo for helping me install it... Much appreciated!

Last but not least...Winner #12: Landscaping!

When I saw these boards I was blown away!  These alone could be a final presentation.  Take a really good look at these...the creativity here is amazing.

Michele and team created a small neighborhood which very nicely illustrates the differences between a 0%, 50% and 100% green landscaping them.  THAT IS AWESOME!  Not to mention the amount of time and effort that went into this...really nice, unique modeling techniques with plenty of textual information on how to create a "green" landscape.

Monoara and Mamta pushed the limits as well.  The board hosts a really delightful small model of a "green" home, well constructed with materials as well.  The sense of scale is right on and works wonderfully with the other graphics and text on the board.

I must say that these two boards made my day.

Winner #11: Heating and Cooling

Nareena and team composed about 95% of their board digitally in Adobe Photoshop, creating a nice simple layout of information and graphics.  I like the comic book/cartoon feel to the board...its easy to read and very nicely done.

Sam and Eddie J. created a nice, straightforward presentation with great information and a nicely made model as  well. I also appreciate the useful diagrams which help explain a difficult topic.  Nice work everyone!

Winner #10: Water Use

How many people make their own plumbing fixtures? Pablo and Elvin do, that's who!  Their ideas are connected  with plumbing "pipes" which reinforces the information on the board.  Good job fellas!...nice bendy straws.

Winner #9: Electricity

I never thought I'd see my name in lights until Joel showed me this and connected the wires to the battery.  Very cool idea, simple and powered!  This thing weighs about 4 lbs. with the dual 9-volts powering the system.  You might say it was a very "bright" idea, no? :)

Winner #8: Roofing

A tie!

Kudos to both teams on this one.  By creating an actual "roof", Ameer and Aung make it easy to convey their ideas on roofing.  Dean and Max make a connection to all of use by creating a pinup board with "post its" which explains their topic nicely.  Good work guys...nice stuff here!