The Burton Center for Arts & Technology (BCAT) has multiple programs preparing high school students for their future career job. These programs include automotive technology, cosmetology, performing arts, culinary arts, engineering, and more. Seniors in the engineering program at the Burton Center for Arts & Technology created a capstone project for the 2024-2025 school year, and so far, have even won a couple awards for it!

Leila Ramey (12) was a member of the engineering program who worked on this project. Leila stated, “A capstone project is what we do our senior year. It’s basically like a big project that’s more applicable to the real world. For the past 3 years, we’ve been doing a lot of projects that are involved in the classroom, but a capstone project is something we will work on throughout the entire year and will kind of implement in our community.” This means that for seniors, a capstone project is a major project. Leila also added, “I find this project very interesting. The project that my group and I are working on is about trying to solve the safety issues that occur because of the lack of cell service at Carvins Cove. We’re basically making call boxes that connect to the EMS and has medical equipment in it to help with safety. For example, if someone has a crash at Carvins Cove, they can just go to the call boxes and connect with EMS without having to reach the parking lot where there’s cell service.” It’s very interesting to learn what these projects are about, especially when it does good for our community and helps keep our city of Roanoke safe.

“This is a very personal thing for me because I grew up mountain biking and my dad is still out there very frequently, so it’s really interesting to see how engineering can be applied in a practical sense like that. There was an entry for the AI Tech innovation challenge, which was done earlier this year, and we won ten-thousand dollars from them and we’re using what we won to build the project, prototype it, and implement it later, probably in early April. We also recently heard we were state finalists for a Virginia competition and now we’re competing at the national level for that as well”, explains Leila Ramey.

This shows the hard work and dedication the seniors had and that all the hard work really paid off. As with most experiences, it hasn’t lacked complications. “There’s been setbacks because a part of engineering is that there’s a lot of stuff you must try, and when that stuff fails you must identify problem, and improve those problems. There’s been periods of difficulty where we think somethings going to work and then it doesn’t.” This project is so impressive because a large part of engineering is trial and error and not letting complications hold you back from improving. Leila also mentions her favorite part about this project where she says, “seeing the impact that engineering can have on the world. Like I said, the first three years had really been contained in the classroom, so it’s really rewarding to see that, as an engineering student, our ideas can be implemented to help others.”