With the cancellation of their Nanoline Contest, the Warren Central Nanoline looks to continue 

    The Warren Central Nanoline team is preparing for their new season, coming off of a successful year last year after finishing second at Nationals. 

    “I have high expectations for both teams,” sponsor James Hanson said. “The students that make up our teams are some of the brightest, hard working and creative students our engineering program has to offer.”

    This year will mark the eighth year the Nanoline team has competed in this engineering competition. Out of eight years, there has only been one year they have not advanced to nationals. This season, the Nanoline team will be in search of a new competition to compete in since the one they usually compete in got cancelled. Although, the teams keep their heads held high because of their success last year, where both of the Nanoline teams advanced to Nationals, and one team earned second place overall with ‘Excellence in Craftsmanship’ and ‘Excellence in Engineering.’ All together, the Warren Central teams have taken home second place three times and first place twice. 

    “Each one of this year's team members specialize in a different skill set and most importantly, they all work well together as a team,” Hanson said. “Both teams have a passion for the projects they have decided to compete with this year. All of these things are vital to a project being competitive.”

    Four of twelve members of the Nanoline teams are returning and experienced members, three of whom are seniors: Tejas Patel, Knight Wolff and Logan Struewing. Getting started on the year, the Nanoline team split into two groups to come up with ideas to compete with. Now, they have been working on their designs for their machinery. 

    “Soon we will begin teaching the newer kids the basics of the competitions electrical and programming components, which I will aid in since I did the programming for two years prior, and prototyping with spare parts and material,” senior Knight Wolff said. “We are also making sure to keep good documentation of each groups ideas through pictures, journals and sketching.”

    Last year, the teams designed, programmed, competed and won multiple awards at regionals and nationals with a pinball machine and an automated closet. While they are still in the early stages of creating their contraptions, they are not allowed to disclose exactly what they are working on yet. But the groups remain confident and excited for their plans for this year. 

    “I'm passionate about Nanoline mostly because of the different experience that comes with Nanoline,” senior Tejas Patel said. “A key distinction of Nanoline from other STEAM or STEM related extracurriculars is that we could literally make anything so long as it follows the rules of the contest, and this much creative freedom is very hard to find in extracurricular activities nowadays.”