Lockport students bring home 1st national gold medal at SkillsUSA

On June 24, Yasmin Alaya, Emma Oster and Anthony “AJ” Ficek were awarded the first place gold medal in engineering technology design at the SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Competition, which took place virtually this year.

Alaya, Oster and Ficek are members of the Lockport Township High School engineering technology design team that presented at the event. They presented their invention June 7 with a display and live model of their “Intruder Stopper,” a device that keeps “intruders” from entering a classroom or office door, according to a news release from Lockport Township High School.

This is the first time a Lockport Township High School student or team has won a national gold medal.

Students were judged “on their performance as a professional team [and] presentation of their invention to a panel of judges from the field of engineering, their storyboard presentation model and the overall effect of the presentation,” according to the release.

Alaya and Oster graduated in June and will be pursuing engineering degrees. Ficek will be a senior this year.

Jeff Brown leads the engineering technology design team, and Matt Mullins serves as the Skills USA adviser.