Since the beginning of the 2025 school year, students in Engineering II have been attempting to fix the broken electric kart in the Engineering lab.

“I was able to get in contact with the guy who bought the kart for the school when it opened in 2009,” senior Connor Wiggins said. “It was a kit that was put together, and there would be a race around campus. Then, it became a senior project. Every year, the engineering teacher would disassemble the kart, and then the seniors would put it together. If they did it right, they’d get to drive it. If they didn’t, it would catch on fire. [But], when COVID-19 hit, it sat dead in the Engineering lab in F building for two years [before] my junior year, when it was moved to the Engineering lab in D building, which is where another senior and I found it.”

Interested students came together at least twice a week to make improvements on their project.

“We have touched on the basics of electrical work,” sophomore Christian Reyes said. “But here, we are actually able to apply some of the things we’ve learned and learn even more than we would have in the classroom. [Personally], I think it’s one thing to learn it in the classroom and do stuff on paper, but it’s another thing to actually do it in the real world.”

Towards the end of November, new parts were ordered to replace the old ones.

“One thing we realized is that we spent the whole first half of the year overcomplicating the mechanisms and the electronics,” sophomore Makoa Apao said. “[So], instead, we just started fresh, which helped put us on the right path. We had to order some buttons, switches, and lights, but the rest of it was provided by the school’s Engineering program. We used what we learned from Mr. Suba by studying the electronic diagrams, and ended up making something that worked really well and fit into the kart perfectly.”

After months of hard work, the kart is finally able to start properly.

“It’s been really fun, although the setbacks were demotivating [at first],” Reyes said. “But, I have a lot of hope that in the end, this will all turn out to be worth it. It’s just nice to have something to look forward to during Engineering when things get boring. Our teachers’ aides, such as Sahib Ratan and Connor Wiggins, have also taught us so much about electrical work, like adding the LEDs, resistors, and all kinds of voltages.”

With their creation, the team hopes to be able to show it off at future school events.

“We’re definitely going to try to improve the kart before using it in events,” Apao said. “But, we also want to use it for events like Trunk or Treat, or as a way to encourage students who want to come to Southwest. One thing we’re planning on doing is collaborating with one of the clubs and integrating the kart into whatever their theme is. There’s definitely some tuning that needs to be done in terms of safety, so [as of] right now, only I and a couple of other select individuals are permitted to ride it.”

This hands-on project has given Wiggins a chance to improve his engineering abilities, persuading him to pursue the field after graduation.

“[After high school], I’ve been accepted for mechanical engineering at the University of Nevada, Reno, where they also have an electric vehicle racing program,” Wiggins said. “You [are expected] to develop an open wheel all electric kart that could go from zero to sixty [in speed] in three and a half seconds flat, and then you test it and drive around a track. They also have a gasoline version, where you can drive it on dirt. I’m very excited to [get involved] and see if I either make it or crash. We’ll find out.”