Oak Harbor students win national engineering challenge with tractor dog platform
Four Oak Harbor High School students won first place in Atlanta with a tractor-mounted dog platform built to keep farm dogs safe in the fields.
Ivan Perez, Malaina Yergo, Joel Christopherson and Lux Eby won first place in Atlanta for Oak Harbor High School with the PawPort, a tractor-mounted platform designed to let farm dogs ride safely with their owners during long days in the fields. Their Smarts and Sparks team built a working prototype under tight time pressure.
The competition took place at the Georgia World Congress Center during the SkillsUSA National Leadership & Skills Conference, where Oak Harbor was the only Washington team among five high school finalists. The challenge, called Field Ready, was sponsored by Fendt and Fastenal. Judges scored teams on creativity, execution, marketability and teamwork, while more than 18,000 people attended the Atlanta event.
The students had just 48 hours, spread over several days, to develop a concept, engineer a prototype, source materials, work with technical mentors, create a sales sheet, produce a one-minute promotional video and deliver a live pitch to industry experts and a national audience.
Oak Harbor earned a $2,000 cash prize, first-place hardware and an invitation to compete at the Make48 Season 10 National Competition in November 2026. The project will also appear later this year in two dedicated television episodes on Roku’s This Old House Makers Channel and on the Make48 YouTube Channel. This Old House Makers Channel is available on The Roku Channel and Samsung TV Plus.
Teacher Chris Whiteman described Oak Harbor High School’s SkillsUSA chapter as the largest high school chapter in Washington. SkillsUSA represents nearly half a million career and technical education students and teachers.
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