Bridgeport student's curiosity with how things work leads to $10K scholarship
May 17—BRIDGEPORT — As long as he can remember, 18-year-old Rhys Davis has loved to take things apart.
Although his actions may sound destructive at first glance, they are rooted in his desire to find out how things work.
"I love building stuff. Ever since I was a kid, I played with Legos and stuff like that. I love taking stuff apart and I get an enjoyment out of just finding out how stuff works and thinking about new ways to do things," Davis said Tuesday after a meeting of the Benedum Airport Authority.
Davis, who will graduate with a 3.92 GPA from Bridgeport High on May 27, was congratulated Tuesday by airport authority members for receiving a $10,000 Lockheed Martin STEM Scholarship. He is enrolling in Penn State in late June to major in mechanical engineering.
During his time in high school, Davis has been a student in the Harrison County Academy of Aviation Technology, which is based at Bridgeport High and open to every Harrison County student. Davis found out about the scholarship from aviation teacher, Rafe Snell, who was alerted about the opportunity by Tracy Miller, president of the Mid-Atlantic Aerospace Complex.
At Tuesday's airport authority meeting, Miller was excited to introduce Davis to the board as "an aviation rock star."
"January 31 of this year, I sent out info on two Lockheed scholarship opportunities to all regional school contacts, plus all of our regional industry and other partners, plus all WV airport contacts, Civil Air Patrol contacts, plus the West Virginia Department of Education to share around West Virginia," Miller said. "Two-hundred kids in the nation get this scholarship and we finally have a West Virginian getting this scholarship.
"So somehow, we as a community and as a society, that want to create more opportunities for our kids, we have to make more of an effort to do whatever it takes to help our students go after this free money. It can make all of the difference in the world to the outcome of their lives." Miller continued.
Davis finished all four semesters of the academy coursework in three years, which allowed him to take Advanced Placement courses his senior year and serve as a teacher's assistant for Snell.
"I've been very selective about the teacher's assistant — it has to be somebody that's motivated and can help in the classroom," Snell said. "He's been one of the finest students I've had."
Davis said Snell does a great job helping students learn how to think up new ideas, break the old boxed-in ways of doing things.
"I love taking something and analyzing it and figuring out how it works and going from there — it's the heart of engineering," Davis said. "It all revolves around having an interest and a curiosity in something to want to create something bigger than yourself."
Davis said he is not certain about the exact aspect of mechanical engineering he wants to study yet, but he would like to design the aircraft of the future, especially if it means making something better.
"I know I want to be in an aeronautical or aerospace field and have a job there somewhere," Davis said. "I like something different that hasn't been done before — new frontiers."
He points to the emergence of a class of aircraft known as VTOLs, craft that can take off and land vertically, as something he may pursue.
"Now, they're creating these new crafts that have multiple propellers, so they have like 8 to 12 to 30 different propellers... and the theory is that they can be used for inner-city transport as a air taxi instead of helicopters, basically a flying people-mover drone," Davis said. "They're creating these different systems to create the future cities. I think that's really cool to think of a whole new way of how we transport ourselves and how we get around."
Davis first became interested in flight in middle school when he was part of a robotics team. During high school, he has taken part in TARC, The American Rocketry Challenge where he led students in building a rocket for a competition.
One year, the competition required the rocket to be able to fly two chicken eggs up safely and return them without breaking. After a few setbacks that year, Davis went back to the 3-D printer and the computer-aided design software the academy has at its disposal and designed something new.
"So, he comes back with a new redesign on how he's going to hold the motor in the rocket. He developed his own set of threads that were 3-D printed and the whole housing — it's just very intricate," Snell said. "So, some of the things that he does go far beyond what we do in the classroom and what he does on his own."
Snell is convinced Davis will be re-approved yearly for the Lockheed Martin STEM Scholarship during his tenure at Penn State.
"We'll be able to say I knew him before he was famous," Snell said.
Reach Eric Cravey at 304-367-2523.
