Congratulations to our 2026 Design Winner, Alayna Ruiz! She is a student at Zia Elementary in Albuquerque. This is Alayna's second year in DI. Her favorite part of participating in DI is writing the story to go with her team's solution. Alayna has many favorite things, including the color green, all animals, writing stories and poetry, reading, nature, and animals. She also enjoys wild rice chicken noodle soup! Yum! We asked Alayna where she found her inspiration to go with our "Wild West" theme for NMDI 2026. She stated that she was inspired by a picture of Olympus Mons, a geographical feature of Mars. Alayna aspires to be a biologist, teacher or professor when she grows up. She also wanted us to know that she has a great family!