2026 Awards

The College of Engineering congratulates each of the student teams that won an award during the annual Engineering Open House, as well as the graduate students who won Wallace Excellence Awards. View award categories, individual award names, project names and associated award recipient names below:

Industry Awards

  • Airbus WSU AE 525 Wingbox Contest 1st Place:

    Keith Dunn, Izak Johnson, James Dodson, Shah Tanveer

  • Airbus WSU AE 525 Wingbox Contest 2nd Place:
    Korben Schrotberger, Jonathan Unruh, Jonathan Welch

  • Airbus WSU AE 525 Wingbox Contest 3rd Place:

    Liam Coiner, Maxx Herd, Glenn Sutton, Abraham Tsuma

  • Ametek Trailblazer Award:
    Ceramic Matrix Fiber Composites for Aviation (Gianna Watts, Linh Tran, Samantha Leong, Jorge Montiel)​

  • Ametek Award for Engineering Excellence:
    Small-Scale Wind Turbine Design (Calla Unruh, Matthew McClellan, Stewart McClelland, Zachary Walker)

  • Ametek Award for Most Impactful:
    Cellulitis Heat Tracker / Phoenix Medical (Gabriel Allen, Bryson Murphy, Isaiah Rogge)
  • Biosense Webster J&J MedTech Award:
    IRIS ICT: Computer Vision for the Operating Room (Taylor Spinelli, Mitchell Steele, Yolanda Gonzalez, Jake Brotherton)​
  • Boeing WSU Aerospace Engineering Bronze Propeller 1st Place:
    The Paddle - Multi-Purpose Fixed Wing Search and Rescue Unmanned Aircraft (Parker Struve, Seth Newton, Caleb Zimmerman, James Wright, Gabriel Remmert)
  • Boeing WSU Aerospace Engineering Bronze Propeller 2nd Place:
    NOMAD | Next-gen Open Mission Air Delivery (Luke Johnson, Tyler Roush, Nicolas Perilla Rivera, Janak Samant, Brylea Schmidt)
  • Boeing WSU Aerospace Engineering Bronze Propeller 3rd Place:
    The Flying Circus: The Goliath (Cole Jackson, Connor O'Dwyer, Morgan Scott, Jude Swilley, Kelsey Thurman)
  • ​Boeing Award of Excellence Best in Show:
    Small-Scale Wind Turbine Design (Calla Unruh, Matthew McClellan, Stewart McClelland, Zachary Walker)​​    ​​
  • Boeing Award of Excellence 1st Runner Up:
    Monitoring and Switching Unit for Pre-OBD II Vehicles (William Dirnbeck, Silas Salano, Yao Christian David Ephraim-M Koffi)
  • ​Boeing Award of Excellence 2nd Runner Up:
    Aerial Fieldwork Systems: Small-Scale Agricultural Drone Spraying Solution (Kristian Buan, Elijah Champagne, Beau Gilpen)
  • ​Boeing Most Innovative Aerospace Engineering Project:
    NOMAD | Next-gen Open Mission Air Delivery (Luke Johnson, Tyler Roush, Nicolas Perilla Rivera, Janak Samant, Brylea Schmidt)​​    ​​
  • Boeing Most Innovative Industrial Engineering Project:
    Exploration and Implementation of Manufacturing Processes to Produce the Patented “Battery Out” (Zach Gordon, Lucca Martins, Nathan Ma, Rayanah Bahrami)    ​​
  • Evergy Taking Innovation to Heart 1st Place:
    Drone Attachment for Vegetation Encroachment (Zachary Berry, Olivia O'Reilly, Nicole Tran)
  • Evergy Taking Innovation to Heart 2nd Place:
    Spice it up! (Aline Pham, Jacob Partridge, Gonzalo Oviedo, Julian Everett Vasquez)    ​

  • Sunflower Electric Power Corporation and IEEE Excellence in Electrical and Electronics Engineering 1st Place:
    FPGA-based Eye-Tracking (Austin Antony, Brady Martin, Hyler Green)

  • Sunflower Electric Power Corporation and IEEE Excellence in Electrical and Electronics Engineering 2nd Place:
    Drone Attachment for Vegetation Encroachment (Zachary Berry, Olivia O'Reilly, Nicole Tran)

  • Sunflower Electric Power Corporation and IEEE Excellence in Electrical and Electronics Engineering 3rd Place:
    The LineLink (Reagan Bohm, Carson McCachern, Hafsa Cheema, Jimmy Nguyen)​

Individual Award

  • Kelly and Tanja Harrison Best Applied Engineering Award:
    Wichita Wind Works (Kara McDaniel, Ethan Inchekel, Jonathan Rasguido Villarroel)
  • Kelly and Tanja Harrison Best Presentation Award:
    Gastro Detector (Grace Kimberlin, Jackson Bracy, Zvikomborero Makiwa)
  • Kelly and Tanja Harrison Best Practical Use Award:
    The LineLink (Reagan Bohm, Carson McCachern, Hafsa Cheema, Jimmy Nguyen )    ​​

​Professional Society Awards

  • ​SWE Sustainable Award:

    Small-Scale Wind Turbine Design (Calla Unruh, Matthew McClellan, Stewart McClelland, Zachary Walker)

  • SWE Most Life-Changing Award:

    Autonomous Safety Wheelchair (Brian Pham, Sejun Moon, Lyla Ott, Brenda John, Brisa Mendez-Castaneda)

  • SWE Most Applicable to Daily Life Award:

    ADF 1 - D.R.A.G.O.N.F.L.Y.: Athlete Delivery Flyer (Caden Carlson, Jordan Manning, Reese Pekny, Alexis Silva, Gary Tran)

  • SME Impact Award:

    Exploration and Implementation of Manufacturing Processes to Produce the Patented “Battery Out” (Zach Gordon, Lucca Martins, Nathan Ma, Rayanah Bahrami)

  • SME Brilliance Award:

    Lean Setup Optimization and Tooling Standardization Using a Digital Twin Approach in a High-Mix Aerospace Manufacturing Environment (Naomie Mukadi, Elizaphan Ondieki, Mohammad Faisal)

University Awards

  • NIAR Excellence in Aviation Research:

    Multi-Purpose Fixed Wing Search and Rescue Unmanned Aircraft / The Paddle (Parker Struve, Seth Newton, Caleb Zimmerman, James Wright, Gabriel Remmert)

  • NIAR Emerging Technology Innovation Award:

    ADF 1 - D.R.A.G.O.N.F.L.Y.: Athlete Delivery Flyer (Caden Carlson, Jordan Manning, Reese Pekny, Alexis Silva, Gary Tran)

  • Aerospace Engineering Bert L. Smith Outstanding Graduating Senior Award:

    Benny Godwin Manoharan

  • Aerospace Engineering Sigma Gamma Tau Outstanding Member Award:
    Caden Carlson
  • Aerospace Engineering Outstanding Project 1st Place:

    The Paddle - Multi-Purpose Fixed Wing Search and Rescue Unmanned Aircraft (Parker Struve, Seth Newton, Caleb Zimmerman, James Wright, Gabriel Remmert)

  • Aerospace Engineering Outstanding Project 2nd Place:

    NOMAD | Next-gen Open Mission Air Delivery (Luke Johnson, Tyler Roush, Nicolas Perilla Rivera, Janak Samant, Brylea Schmidt)

  • Aerospace Engineering Outstanding Project 3rd Place:

    The Flying Circus: The Goliath (Cole Jackson, Connor O'Dwyer, Morgan Scott, Jude Swilley, Kelsey Thurman)

  • Aerospace Engineering Fall 2026 Outstanding Project:

    Characterizing Induced Turbulence Using Hot-Wire Anemometry for Racing Bicycles (Tyler Beatty, Brett Dabler, Anna Wilding and Carter Stahly)

  • ​Applied Engineering/Engineering Technology Outstanding Student:

    Spencer MacLaughlin

  • Applied Engineering Best Senior Design Project: 

    Rootonomous: Care-Free Gardening Solution (Shyanne Eckis, Spencer MacLaughlin, Benjamin Andress)

  • ​Applied Engineering Best Senior Design Project Runner Up: 
    From Effluent to Asset: Integrating Industrial Wastewater Streams Through Reverse Osmosis for Sustainable Reuse​ (Rachel Cloud, Brandon Zahn)
  • Biomedical Engineering Outstanding Project 1st Place:

    IRIS ICT: Computer Vision for the Operating Room (Taylor Spinelli, Mitchell Steele, Yolanda Gonzalez, Jake Brotherton)

  • Biomedical Engineering Outstanding Project 2nd Place:

    Vitalysis: A Novel ECG Electrode for Motion Artifact Reduction (Benjamin Anderson, Kalista Beasley, Jamie Claeys, Thomas Fleischman)

  • Biomedical Engineering Outstanding Project 3rd Place:

    Echo: Navigation Belt for Blind/Visually Impaired Individuals (Tristen Porter, Yasemin Barut, Eddy Maxine Bertulfo, Marie Meuli, Kenton Evans)

  • Biomedical Engineering Outstanding Project 4th Place:

    ATM – Adaptive Treatment Medical

  • Electrical & Computer Engineering Best Senior Design I Project:

    • Autonomous Chicken Tractor (Blake Bohnert, Severo Amador, Dyaaveer Singh)

    • The LineLink (Reagan Bohm, Carson McCachern, Hafsa Cheema, Jimmy Nguyen)
  • Electrical & Computer Engineering Best Senior Design II Project: 

    Monitoring and Switching Unit for Pre-OBD II Vehicles (William Dirnbeck, Silas Salano, Yao Christian David Ephraim-M Koffi)

  • Electrical & Computer Engineering Senior Design II Project Runner Up: 

    Appliance Status & Energy Monitoring (Madison Koester, Cara Crowley, Christian Malunga)

  • Industrial, Systems & Manufacturing Engineering Outstanding Senior in Industrial Engineering:

    Whitney Salmans

  • Industrial, Systems & Manufacturing Engineering Outstanding Graduate Senior in Product Design and Manufacturing:

    Harshit Awasthi

  • Industrial, Systems & Manufacturing Engineering / Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers: Outstanding Undergraduate Project:

    Exploration and Implementation of Manufacturing Processes to Produce the Patented “Battery Out” (Zach Gordon, Lucca Martins, Nathan Ma, Rayanah Bahrami)

  • Industrial, Systems & Manufacturing Engineering / Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers: Outstanding Undergraduate Project Runner Up:

    Smart Refrigerator Water Bottle Refill System with UV Sanitation (Harshit Awasthi, Ethan Mann, Tanatswa Mafume, Beatriz Ordonez)

  • Mechanical Engineering Best Capstone Project 1st Place:

    Small-Scale Wind Turbine Design (Calla Unruh, Matthew McClellan, Stewart McClelland, Zachary Walker)

  • Mechanical Engineering Best Capstone Project 2nd Place:

    2026 HVAC Design Calculations (Peyton Reynolds, Summer Goth, Darryl Moorehead, Xuphanh Hunter)

  • Mechanical Engineering Best Capstone Project 3rd Place:

    Cheddar Popcorn Drying Machine (Jeffrey Elliott, Samantha Elliott, Bruno Golac, Seth Langenberg, Cole Waymire)

  • School of Computing Best Senior Design I 1st Place Project:

    QuestLog (Brandon Nguyen, Jennifer Isobe, Sydney Epke, Supriya Gurung)

  • School of Computing Best Senior Design I 2nd Place Project:

    WUnified (Ronish Rasaily, Joanna Nguyen, Tammy Vu, Keaton Stwalley)

  • School of Computing Best Senior Design I 3rd Place Project:

    Smart Campus Assistant (SArpan Dey, Vu Nguyen, Teng Fai Leong)

  • School of Computing Best Senior Design II 1st Place Project:

    The UI(286) Operating System (Edward Bierens)

  • School of Computing Best Senior Design II 2nd Place Project:

    WuPark (Simon Korondi, Cosmin Musteata, Jacob Ranzau, Tristan Oxley)

  • School of Computing Best Senior Design II 3rd Place Project:

    Retention Pond Depth Mapping Midterm Report (Benjamin Gorman, Calen Dell, Dylan Cosaart, King Nguyen)

  • School of Computing Best Cybersecurity Project 1st Place:

    BlueShield (Andrew Sauls, Daniel Halbleib, Mathias Benitez Vera)

  • School of Computing Best Cybersecurity Project 2nd Place:

    FlexiPiAccess (Hon Luu, Jack Delmar, Koral Richardson)

  • School of Computing Best Cybersecurity Project 3rd Place:

    RedBlue Virtual Labs (Jason Kurtz, Cecilia Bonilla, Yesenia Arzate)​

Clark Beck Award

  • Excellence in Communication Award
    IRIS ICT: Computer Vision for the Operating Room (Taylor Spinelli, Mitchell Steele, Yolanda Gonzalez, Jake Brotherton)