It was a David vs. Goliath scenario at Raytheon Systems as Bishop Garcia Diego High School’s STEM team faced off against Dos Pueblos, San Marcos and Santa Barbara high schools in the 12th Annual Engineer Games.

Leonardo da Vinci’s famous Mona Lisa served as the background, and the objective was to build a capacitive sensor (symbol finder) to reveal the hidden symbol without destroying the painting.

The winning device consisted of a circuit that modeled a stud finder. It was able to sense when a hidden wooden symbol was present behind a foam art board. Not only did they have to locate the symbols behind the Mona Lisa, but they had to detect the exact shape of the symbols using their device.

Senior Nic Mon and juniors Charlie Fling, Therese Fazio and Ben Helkey brought home the hardware for Bishop Diego. Dean of Science Brianna Adam said she was proud of the effort the kids put into the competition this year.

“Having finished in second place last year, our students were fired up to win it, and their hard work paid off,” she said. “The kids’ ability to think outside the box and apply their knowledge to new situations is what brought home the victory for Bishop.”

Bishop’s STEM program is an extremely rigorous course of study for students who wish to study science, engineering, technology and math at the highest and most concentrated levels. Many of the STEM students are also part of the Bishop Scholar’s program, which allows for modified schedules permitting enrollment in UCSB and SBCC classes, independent study and online coursework.

Bishop Diego is an independent, Catholic high school that accepts students of all faiths.

— Ashley Snider is the director of admissions and public relations at Bishop Garcia Diego High School.