25-04-2025
Waterville brothers win Griffiss AFRL Challenge
ROME, NY (WUTR/WFXV/WPNY) — A pair of Waterville brothers took home the top prize in the Griffiss Institute's AFRL Challenge on Friday.
The win for Waterville students Edmond and Oscar Yang culminated a week-long event that helped students from across Central New York learn STEM skills and critical thinking, among other skills. The Yang brothers also earned $2,500 for their New York 529 savings account, to be used for their future college.
Four local schools were given a challenge at the beginning of the week: analyze, design, and pitch a technical solution to a problem. This year, the problem was focused on aircraft detection and classification using an AI model.
'When I first heard the challenge I was pretty excited, because I'm interested in aviation,' Oscar said in a statement.
The four teams were given mentorship by scientists and engineers from the Air Force Research Laboratory throughout the week. Over the course of four tasks, students advanced from running pre-trained models to running their own trained models.
'I was pretty excited, but then learning it was code I was a bit anxious since I had no experience with it coming in,' Edmond Yang said in a statement. 'It was a big curveball, but we're happy with the result.'
Later tasks required the teams to distinguish between specific types of aircraft. The final tasks had teams identifying almost 80 different types of aircraft under a variety of real-world conditions.
'The AFRL Challenge Competition exemplifies the power of partnership,' Heather Hage, President and CEO of the Griffiss Institute, said in a statement. 'By bringing students into direct contact with Department of Defense research leaders through Rome Lab, we spark a lifelong curiosity in STEM and open doors to opportunity. Events like this one show how community investment in education pays dividends, fostering future innovators and strengthening our region's role in national security.'
Holland Patent's Henry King and Nicholas Race took second place, while Notre Dame's Lily Elinskas and Eva Putrello took third. Timothy Hill and Jolainna Sciorilli of Rome Free Academy took fourth place.
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