MTHS Engineering Design and Development (EDD) Honors Capstone Class Half Year Presentations (2025-26)

Written by Aryan Srinivasan

Co-Edited by Srujan Patil

On December 5th of the ‘25-’26 school year, the MTHS PLTW Honors Engineering Capstone Class held their mid-year presentations in the school cafeteria. 

A total of seven teams presented in front of a panel of judges that consisted of Executive Board Members from the district and Monroe Education Foundation, professional engineers, professors, and MTHS alumni. These teams put in the hard work to identify, research, and validate a problem of their choosing over the course of three months. The result? They compiled months of research, including past patents, professional advice, and real-life observations, into one presentation that summed up their justification for developing their product and attacking their problem. After presentations concluded, the judges commented their thoughts on the various problems and advised each team on how to improve for the end-of-year presentations held in June. Currently, all teams are preparing for this June presentation by developing and testing their actual prototypes, which will be showcased to professional judges at the end-of-year presentations.

MTHS students presented the following presentations in order starting at 8:30 AM on the day of the event:

• The Asphalt Effect

• Rolling Remedies

• Countertop Conundrum

• Don’t Go the Distance

• Project Protheon

• Project Struct-Secure

• Umbrella Pandemonium

Not only were the projects innovative, but they were incredibly promising. The next generation of engineers are being crafted at MTHS, by these students right here. The event turned out to be very successful, with outstanding turnout from professionals in the industry, MTHS alumni, current students, and district administrators and supervisors.

MTHS was able to secure a distinguished panel of judges for this event, and the PLTW Honors Engineering Capstone class pays a special tribute to the following attendees:

• Mrs. Gazala Bohra (Monroe Board of Education Member)

• Mr. Steven Riback (The President of the Monroe Education Foundation)

• Mr. Frank Bannon & Mr. John Katranksy (Engineers from Nokia Bell Labs)

• Mrs. Lavanya Komala (Software Engineer)

• Shaan Jabbal (MTHS Alumni & Mechanical Engineering student at Rutgers)

• Dr. Thomas Bennert (Rutgers CAIT)

The judges played a significant role in assessing the presentations and providing unique feedback to help the groups improve before the end-of-year presentations.

District advisors also showed up to the event to support MTHS students. Acting superintendent Dr. Adam Layman, Director of School Counseling and Student Support Services Dr. James Cernansky, and Director of Innovative and Community Programs, Equity and Careers Technology, Mr. Zachary Morolda were all present at the teams’ presentations. 

For a comprehensive review of the event, check out the link below and show support to your fellow MTHS students! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrqG2K0z8gY 

Overall, the MTHS PLTW Honors Engineering Capstone mid-year presentations served as major progress for the aspiring engineers in the class and a huge success in innovating solutions to growing issues in modern day. The participants pay a special thanks to Mrs. Vanitha Gaurishanker for facilitating the class and the presentations. 

To support your classmates further, stay tuned for the end-of-year presentations where the participants will share their working prototypes with a distinguished panel of judges on June 15, 2026!