Courtesy of Lisa Fryklund/Licensed by Society for Science
On Tuesday, in the competition’s awards ceremony, Montelongo was one of five big winners, taking home the Broadcom Coding with Commitment Award.
“He integrated mechanical engineering and learned how to use machines and specialized tools, as well as being a coder,” Maya Ajmera, the president and CEO of the Society for Science, which puts on the competition, told BI. “So it’s this integration, this interdisciplinary method of doing the research that I think got him to where he is at.”
He also chose a research topic that resonates across the US. Last year there were 1,301 train derailments across the country, according to data from the Federal Railroad Administration. Most of these are minor and occur at low speed, but some derailments damage property and spill hazardous materials.
The Ohio derailment
When a freight train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, causing a disastrous chemical spill that forced the town to evacuate, Montelongo was in the middle of an internship on railway safety. It was February 2023.
Courtesy of Lisa Fryklund/Licensed by Society for Science
Montelongo is now in his first year of high school, playing football, and hopes to become a mechanical engineer.
“I really enjoyed designing things and coding things,” Montelongo said. “What I really want to do is design the spaceships that go up to space.”
One day he’d like to work at NASA or SpaceX, he added. For now, he builds rocketships in a game on his phone.
Later investigation found that a defective wheel bearing — which is part of the suspension system — caused the Ohio derailment.