Bay Area Students Raise the Roof with Engineering Solutions at The Tech Interactive's 39th Annual Tech Challenge

More Than 1,100 Students Showcased Lifting Devices Inspired by Affordable Housing Construction, Demonstrated Mastery of Engineering Skills, Teamwork, Creativity, and Innovation

San Jose, CA, April 30, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- More than 1,100 students from across Northern California brought bold ideas, creative problem-solving and plenty of team spirit to The Tech Interactive’s 39th annual Tech Challenge: Raise the Roof, a hands-on engineering showcase inspired by the Bay Area’s urgent need for affordable housing.

The "Home Haulers", a team of 7-8 grade students, demonstrate their crane (decorated as a giraffe) during The Tech Challenge Showcase in San Jose.

This year’s challenge asked students in grades 4-12 to design, build and test an innovative lifting device to place housing modules at a simulated construction site. Teams traveled from communities including San Jose, Oakland, Gilroy, Salinas, Seaside, Hollister, Los Banos, Folsom, Carmichael, and Mountain House.

“The Tech Challenge is transformative because it turns students into real-world problem solvers,” said John Heinlein, Ph.D., Executive Committee Chair of The Tech Challenge. “When they tackle complex issues like affordable housing, test their ideas, and push through failure as a team, they don’t just learn science and engineering, they start to see it as a path for themselves. For many, it’s the moment they realize, ‘I could do this. I could build a future in fields like engineering and technology.’”

The Tech Challenge celebrates the engineering process and the many ways students learn, grow and solve problems together, rather than just the end result. This year, The Tech Interactive introduced Special Recognition Pins to honor the real-world engineering skills demonstrated throughout the showcase. Teams were recognized for submitting effective engineering journals, demonstrating clear communication of the iterative design process, and more than 250 teams were recognized for collaboration, ingenuity and a pure love of engineering.

Special recognitions from the Head Judges spotlighted a wide range of approaches, from rigorous testing and thoughtful documentation to creative construction, research, communication and team spirit. Team Megabuilders from Azevada Elementary School received recognition for their innovative use of gamification in The Tech Challenge. Eshan Mulugu, a 4th grader on the team, coded a playable web browser crane simulation game so his team could practice the challenge digitally before building their physical device. 

“As students left this year's Tech Challenge Showcase, you could see in their actions and hear in their voices how much they’d grown,” said Greg Brown, Founder of The Tech Challenge. “They walked away as more confident creative thinkers, stronger problem-solvers and more effective teammates. What's better is the inspiration that flows both ways. While we hope The Tech Challenge inspires students, they inspire us right back. This year’s showcase made me even more optimistic about the future of our community and our world.”

Other special recognitions highlighted students who visited construction sites and modular housing builders to inform their designs, documented their failures and what they learned, created detailed how-to instructions for recreating their devices, and connected their engineering work to housing concerns such as overcrowding and high prices in San Jose.

The showcase was filled with hundreds of student-built cranes, pulleys, hydraulic systems, themed costumes, from construction cranes to avian cranes, and teams cheering each other on as they tested their devices before panels of professional engineers volunteering as mentors and judges. Many participants are already excited to put their new skills to work on the next challenge, which begins this fall.

“My favorite Tech Challenge is the next one,” said Brown. “We are already designing our 40th challenge, and I can’t wait to see what the students dream up next.”

 

Media Assets:

Photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/techinteractive/albums/72177720333324296/

B-Roll: Tech Challenge 26 B-Roll

Eshan Mulugu’s crane simulation game

Photo/video credit: Courtesy of The Tech Interactive

 

Sponsors of The Tech Challenge include:

Legacy Supporters: Barbara and Bill Heil

Pioneer Supporters: Adobe Systems Incorporated, Intel Corporation, Rulofson Estate

Founding Supporters: Amazon, Arm, ASML, EY, Constance and Gerald Held, Marvell Technologies, Neat, Nokia, Workday Foundation

An aerial view of The Tech Challenge Showcase 2026 in San Jose, CA.

About The Tech Interactive

The Tech Interactive is a family-friendly science and technology center in the heart of downtown San Jose. Our hands-on activities, experimental labs and design challenge experiences empower people to innovate with creativity, curiosity and compassion. The Tech is a world leader in the creation of immersive STEM education resources to develop the next generation of problem-solvers locally, nationally and globally. We believe that everyone is born an innovator who can change the world for the better.

Press Inquiries

Katie Barrow
publicrelations [at] thetech.org
https://www.thetech.org
201 S. Market St.
San Jose, CA 95113

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