Mexicali, Mexico - Full of drive and passion for automotive engineering, four middle school students from Colegio Americano de Mexicali took first place in the global Student Automotive Design Challenge (SADC) sponsored by Honeywell Hometown Solutions, the company's corporate citizenship initiative, and SAE International.

This is the second year in a row that a team from Mexico won the challenge. The special curriculum emphasizes math, science, technology, social studies and language arts to research, design, market and engineer a functioning electric gear-driven toy car that must meet performance standards.

Team members Galo Fimbres, 13, Rocío Silenciario, 13, Alan Monroy, 13, and Cassandra Maese, 18, created "The Emperor of Wheels" toy car company during two months of classroom activities. Their project used a penguin theme to align with demographic research on what a target audience would want in a toy car.

The global competition was led by teachers and assisted by Honeywell employee volunteers. Honeywell's SADC program is now in its 9th year and comprised more than 400 students from 8 schools in 7 countries with the support of nearly 70 Honeywell employee volunteers.

"We are very proud of our team and what they accomplished. To win is a great honor for these bright students. With the help of Honeywell's expert volunteers our students put their theoretical knowledge of these subjects into practice and enjoyed every moment of it," said Graciela Ramos, principal of Colegio Americano de Mexicali.

The "The Emperor of Wheels" team competed against teams advancing from local competitions in the United States, France, China, Slovakia and Brazil. All of the teams constructed a video of their project that was then reviewed by Honeywell employees and other external audiences in an online voting process. The winning team has been recognized by Honeywell in a local ceremony and will be hosted at an industry attraction linked to math, science or automotive technology to be announced for later this year.

"Working with talented young students has been an exciting experience for our employees in the communities where we work and live," said Honeywell Transportation Systems Chief Technology Officer Craig Balis. "Our goal for the hundreds of students participating in schools around the world is to inspire this next generation to choose challenging and rewarding engineering careers."

The SADC Challenge is a co-sponsored program between Honeywell and SAE International in which small groups of middle school students employ a multi-disciplinary curriculum into the development of their final project. During the six- to eight-week in-class school curriculum, the students are connected to Honeywell volunteers who mentor and guide them through this process, giving the students an opportunity to connect and engage with the automotive industry.

For more information, please visit the Honeywell SADC Challenge Facebook page.