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The three -- Tylor Ellard, Max Hughes and Hector Herrera -- entered the competition with something called the grenade project.

"My brother sent me an email when he was with the Marines in Iraq about what was going on over there," said Ellard.

He got word of this competition and urged Hughes and Herrera to enter with him.

"Well, he came to me in my dorm room and said, 'Dude, let's get into this competition,'" said Hererra, who is biological science major at Cal State San Marcos.

To see if this would mathematically fly, Ellard called on Hughes' help.

"Well, Tylor is a very smart guy, but his math isn't always the greatest," said Hughes, a computer science major at UC San Diego.

Ellard, a mechanical engineering student at Palomar College, said he has always been interested in the field.

"I designed defense technologies, rocketry, I did all this stuff in high school simply because I was interested in it," Ellard told 10News.

Their prototype, which has no explosive materials, is shaped like a small artillery shell that they say will fly faster and farther than the current hand grenades used by the military.

Winning the competition would certainly help with school finances as first place would be worth $12,500.