PCA Places Second at UNH Symposium

This year’s Grand Prize Science Fair winners at PCA were David Brackett (junior, pictured to right), Sarah Poole (junior), Sam Stevens (sophomore), and Justin Lahue (senior, not pictured) with their project entitled “The Effect of Tubercles on the Efficiency and Auditory Output of Wind Turbines.”

Last week, David represented his group at UNH and presented their project at the university’s Junior Science and Humanities Symposium. Out of 60 posters, PCA’s project won second prize!

David is also currently working on a “WiFi Heatmap” project for PCA. Each year, the Upper School Software Engineering class tackles a software development project which students propose and vote on. This year’s class voted for David’s WiFi Heatmap project which will produce a graphical view of the campus, showing where most Wifi users are located and provide recommendations on where additional WiFi access points and capacity can be installed.

When you talk to most teens about wifi and network connectivity you touch a nerve. Available and reliable internet access are not just niceties but essentials in their always on, always connected world.

Each year the Upper School Software Engineering class tackles a software development project which students propose and vote on. This year’s class voted for David Brackett’s “Wifi Heatmap” project. The goal of David’s project is to produce a graphical view of the campus showing where most Wifi users are located and provide recommendations on where additional WiFi access points and capacity be installed. The teacher, Mr. Shevenell, is especially excited by this project as he spent most of his 30+ years in industry (prior to PCA) developing Network Infrastructure Management products and technologies. He states, “The class is fondly reminiscent of my years leading project teams in software development products. Our students are great learners!”