The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation announced that a team of students from the Monroe County Career and Technical Institute won the PennDOT District 5’s fifth Innovations Challenge.

Mentored by Ross Ruschman, team members include: Neylla Joseph, Brittany Ulate-Mora, Gavin Glukhoy and Kyle Jarrett.

Now in its fifth year, the PennDOT Innovations Challenge invites high school students in grades 9-12 to use their problem-solving, creative and strategic-thinking abilities to solve real-world transportation challenges.

The Innovations Challenge aims to not only help students explore actual transportation challenges that PennDOT is facing, but also open their minds to the very real possibility of working for PennDOT after graduation.

This year’s Innovations Challenge asked students to develop a comprehensive and cost-effective public engagement strategy that uses innovative technologies and tools that PennDOT can implement to?more effectively engage and connect with all age groups during the transportation planning and project development process.

The winning regional team’s innovation was PaE3, an innovated way of using existing technologies to approach the need for communication between PennDOT and its key stockholders and the community.

Regional winners will now move on to compete for the state championship. For complete Innovations Challenge details, visit http://www.penndot.gov/innovation and click on Innovations Challenge.