The judges of the sixth annual Altec Innovation Challenge gave a green thumbs up to the team from Ramsay High School’s Academy of Engineering during the finals held at Altec’s corporate headquarters today.

Ramsay’s Eco Rams prevailed in the “final four” of the competition, which also included teams from Huffman High School’s Academy of Architecture and Construction, Malachi Wilkerson Middle School, and South Hampton K-8.

Altec will provide a $10,000 reward to the winning team to implement their project, a hydroponic garden that will address food security by providing fresh fruits and vegetables to the community.

The Eco Rams team includes scholars Sydnee Allen, Jakeria Clopton, Bethany Horn, Ste’Phen Lawson, Chanah Reese, and Shiye Rice and is sponsored by April Sibley and Jennifer Gilbert.

The runners up projects included:

low-cost tiny homes for the homeless built by the Huffman team,
a keycard system for lockers fabricated by the Wilkerson team, and
a mental health self-help app developed by the South Hampton team.

The Altec Innovation Challenge encourages local high school students to apply their knowledge in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Participating teams address real-world problems with innovative solutions to benefit the local community and present their proposals and/or prototypes to a panel of eight judges from public and private sectors, who determine the winner of the $10,000 reward. The company sponsors the competitions in its corporate home of Birmingham as well as Elizabethtown, Kentucky, the site of one its manufacturing facilities.

UPDATE: Altec presented a check for $10,000 to the Ramsay team during the Birmingham Board of Education meeting held on Feb. 13.

Ramsay High School Team Wins Altec Innovation Challenge