Press Release: Ygnacio Valley High School Student Wins the Second Annual Wisecarver Innovation Award from Bishop-Wisecarver
Award Given to Student with the Most Innovative Design for Automated Pizza Making
Pittsburg, Calif. – January 26, 2022 – Bishop-Wisecarver, a trusted industrial automation company offering proven mechatronic solutions that are expertly designed and delivered to perform, today announced that Victor Palpallatoc from Ygnacio Valley High School in the Mt. Diablo Unified School District has won its second annual Wisecarver Innovation Award. This year’s student design contest challenged students to recognize the benefits of automation while creating a streamlined process for pizza preparation. Palpallatoc’s winning design was a “specialty pizza stove” that included hardware and software components to most efficiently distribute sauce and toppings on the prepared dough.This is the second Ygnacio Valley High School student to win the design contest, highlighting the school’s strong focus on STEM and dedicated leadership of Joseph Alvarico, Engineering Pathway teacher, FIRST Robotics coach and Femineers program leader. Bishop-Wisecarver is proud to be a multi-year sponsor for the school’s FIRST robotics team - Project 212 - and provide support to our female engineers volunteering their time as mentors with the new Femineers program. Bishop-Wisecarver is committed to supporting and promoting programs that provide real-world learning experiences to help students succeed today, and well into their futures.
“Our diverse group of students thrive when learning via real-world experiences so opportunities like the Bishop-Wisecarver design contest are a valuable part of our teaching process,” said Alvarico. “Partnerships with local corporate leaders such as Bishop-Wisecarver help provide financial support for our teams and programs – as well as mentors and advisors for our students – all of which is critical to their long-term success. I am proud that Ygnacio Valley students have won this contest both years. They reflect our incredibly smart and hard-working student body that will bring even greater success to our community and world.”
Palpallatoc, a senior, appreciates the opportunities the school offers to students interested in engineering. “One of the things I love most about engineering is the ability to create new machines that can do things as important as manufacturing life-saving medical equipment or helping a locally owned pizza business succeed by implementing automated equipment,” he said. “My design submission included concepts I’ve learned in my high school engineering classes, as well as skills I’ve learned as part of our Project 212 FIRST Robotics team. I am honored to have been selected as the winner.”
Victor Palpallatoc, senior at Ygnacio Valley High School in Concord, Calif., wins
second annual Wisecarver Innovation Award student design contest sponsored by Bishop-Wisecarver.
About the Innovation Design Contest
This year’s Wisecarver Innovation Award encouraged students to understand the benefits automation can provide such as higher production rates and increased productivity, more efficient use of materials, better product quality, and improved safety. It also emphasized that implementing automation doesn’t replace jobs, but provides even better opportunities for the future workforce, which includes these students. Participants were required to submit a 60-second video that included an overview of their idea, how it helps and any drawings, prototypes or concept designs that could help provide additional explanation.
The three key areas used to determine the winner were: Innovation -- How does this idea represent an improvement in the pizza making process? Thinking outside the box -- Originality of idea Executable – Is this something that could actually be developed/implemented leveraging existing or new technology?
“Supporting students in our community has been an unwavering commitment at Bishop-Wisecarver since the company first started more than 70 years ago and we are proud to be involved with schools and programs that are helping our students succeed,” said Pamela Kan, Bishop-Wisecarver President. “This year’s design contest submissions once again showed the creativity, intelligence and talent of our local youth and I am excited knowing these students will be our fellow team members in the near future.”
About the Bishop-Wisecarver
Bishop-Wisecarver’s proven mechatronic solutions are expertly designed and delivered to perform, enabling customers to solve their toughest industrial automation challenges. Leveraging 70 years of experience, the company has earned the reputation of providing unmatched quality, reliability, service and engineering support for every stage of a customer’s design cycle. Combining long-lasting performance with ease of installation, Bishop-Wisecarver products offer the lowest cost of ownership for a wide variety of applications ranging from Aerospace to Medical to X-Y-Z systems and more. No matter the application or extreme environmental conditions, Bishop-Wisecarver designs innovative solutions from concept to completion, from prototype to production, on time and on budget.
