Notre Dame Prep junior Zachary Goldasich earned a third-place finish in a technology competition meant for university engineering students from around the world. The Academic Poster Sessions competition was held at the COE 2013 Annual PLM Conference & TechniFair in Orlando last month.
Goldasich's submission in the competition featured his design for a more efficient underwater propulsion system that combines electro-chemical technology with a conventional water ramjet thruster to better propel underwater vehicles without any increase in engine size. "In other words," Goldasich says, "more power without making the thruster any bigger, which is important, especially for small manned and unmanned submarines."
The COE conference and competition was sponsored by Dassault Systèmes, a Paris, France-based company devoted to computer-aided design and 3D design software with clients that include Honda, BMW and Boeing. COE (CATIA Operators Exchange) annually brings together users of Dassault Systèmes software solutions for nearly a week of technical session, presentations and seminars.
Notre Dame Prep was the first high school in the world to adopt Dassault's 3D Experience software platform and Goldasich has worked with the software from the very beginning.
According to Katrina Palushaj, Notre Dame's CAD instructor, this 3D design software is "perfectly aligned with the way kids think today and makes it fun to learn, opening engineering up to a whole new group of people."
Goldasich has another year of high school left, but he's already received two reputable engineering job offers. He says that getting offers for jobs is flattering, but he's still making plans to spend at least four years in college after he graduates from NDP in 2014. A couple of universities currently are on his radar, including Embry–Riddle Aeronautical University (based in Florida), Princeton, Michigan Tech., Northwestern and M.I.T.
About Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy
Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy is a private, Catholic, independent, coeducational day school located in Oakland County. The school's upper division enrolls students in grades nine through twelve and has been named one of the nation's best 50 Catholic high schools (Acton Institute) four times since 2005. Notre Dame's middle and lower divisions enroll students in jr. kindergarten through grade eight. All three divisions are International Baccalaureate "World Schools." NDPMA is conducted by the Marist Fathers and Brothers and is accredited by the Independent Schools Association of the Central States and the North Central Association Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement. For more on Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy, visit the school's home page at www.ndpma.org.