Destination Imagination
Before I ever started a business, I spent about eight years competing in Destination Imagination.
Every year, my team and I were given an engineering challenge with a set of rules, but nobody told us how to solve it.
We had to develop the idea, design it, build it, test it, and usually rebuild parts of it when they didn’t work.
Then we took everything in front of judges and had to prove that what we built actually worked, all while incorporating it into an entire performance we created ourselves.
I was doing this long before I ever took an engineering class.
The process
Our first version almost never worked.
Then we’d figure out why.
- Ideate
- Design
- Build
- Test
- Fix
- Present
- Compete
Some of what we built
Making someone fly
For one challenge, we built a pulley system that could lift someone into the air so it looked like they were flying during our performance.
Holding 100+ pounds
For another, we built a structure from limited materials, including wood and glue. It held more than 100 pounds.
Engineering + Performance
We also created everything around what we built. For one performance, I choreographed an entire dance sequence as part of the story.
Results
- 1st Place
- 3rd Place
- Global Finals
- DaVinci Award
What stayed with me
I didn’t know I wanted to study engineering when I started Destination Imagination.
I just knew I loved being given something that didn’t have an obvious answer and having to figure one out.
I loved the building, but I also loved everything around it. The details, figuring out why something wasn’t working, changing one thing and testing it again, and finally watching something we had made actually work.
I still do.