Gather. Compete. Achieve.
Washington MESA Day is an annual STEM competition for middle and high school students throughout the state of Washington.
Over the course of a year, students participate in fun, hands-on learning activities and mini projects in pairs or small groups—all gearing up for a day of competition with peers statewide. Students identify or are presented with a real-world problem or challenge grounded in STEM, and work to provide a viable solution.
MESA Day 2025
Date: Saturday, May 17, 2025, 8:30 am – 1:30 pm
Location: University of Washington, GIX Building, Bellevue
Theme: Designing for Equity in Your Community—students will identify an inequity that adversely impacts an individual or group and employ a human-centered design process to propose a solution. All solutions must use a coding component.
What to Expect
Attendees can expect hands-on activities exploring real-world challenges.
Components of the challenge will include:
Design Brief
The design brief should offer a brief, non-technical overview of the entire project. Students must use the provided design brief template.
Prototype Pitch
The Prototype Pitch should convince the audience that the design meets the user’s needs and has value as a product to address an issue of inequity.
Poster
The poster should provide an overview of the project, highlight key points of the design process, discuss relevant testing and data collection, present the resulting prototype and share recommendations for further development.
Technical Presentation/Interview
Students will deliver a short presentation to overview the prototype functionality, including a technical explanation of the mechanical operations, software operations, and integration of the two.
To learn more, visit the National Engineering Design Competition (NEDC) website.
For questions about WA MESA Day, please email Lindirm@uw.edu, Director of STEM Education.