Winners of 14th annual Techxpo Design Showcase announced
Winners of the 14th annual Techxpo Design showcase have been announced.
Ninety student research and design projects, represented by 168 undergraduate and graduate students, filled the HPER Complex at Montana Technological University on Thursday, April 24, 2025.
Techxpo is a campus-wide event aimed at showcasing the hard work, innovation, and excellence of students. Exhibits included projects in science, engineering, and mathematics. A panel of industry professionals judge the students’ projects, and the top project in each category is awarded a cash prize.
The 2025 event is sponsored by Montana Precision Products, NorthWestern Energy, Water & Environmental Technologies, Ash Grove Company, Shadow Ridge Analytics, and Montana Tech Research and Graduate School, the Lance College of Mines and Engineering, and the College of Letters, Sciences and Professional Studies. For more information, visit https://www.mtech.edu/techxpo/.
Competition Projects
First Place: Society of Automotive Engineers Baja Senior Design
Logan Solterbeck, Aziah Blotkamp, Michael Renaud, Duncan Sterk, Justyn Forrest, Mechanical Engineering
Second Place: Montana Tech AGC Commercial Team
MaKenna Liles, Bode Jensen, Civil Engineering
Graduate Projects
First Place: Microorganism Community Development Post Restoration on the Clark Fork River
Carl Leitert, Restoration Ecology
Second Place: Perovskite Quantum Dots for Gamma Ray Detection
Xavier Vorhies, Materials Science
Two-Semester Projects
First Place: Semi-Trailer Airbag Drag Reduction System
Cody Skibsted, Justin Dietz, Electrical Engineering & Blake Drakos, Jack Boone, Mechanical Engineering
Second Place: Development of Software Routines to Read, (Pre-) Process, and Store MDT RWIS Data
Maverick Owens, Computer Science
One-Semester Projects
First Place: Genome Annotation of Mycobacterium Phage Totinger
Lily Brouch, Biological Sciences
Second Place: Assessing VO2 Max in Collegiate Long-Distance Runners using a Novel Flat Track Protocol
Olleca Severson, Biological Sciences
Chancellor Award Winners
Graduate Projects
Innovation: Characterization of Conductive Polymer-Carbon Nanotube Composites
Luke Suttey, Materials Science
Scientific Insight: Effect of Variable Pore Scale Systems on CO2 EOR and Storage in Shale Reservoirs Maame Kwakye-Tannor, Petroleum Engineering
Professionalism: Geotechnical and Geophysics - Rosetta Stone
David Barrick, Earth Science and Engineering
Undergraduate Projects
Innovation: Supramolecular Uterotonic Therapeutic Nanomedicine for Atony Induced Postpartum Hemorrhaging
Taylinn Garrett, Biochemistry
Scientific Insight: Identification of Phases of Efficient Direct Reduction of Briquettes from DRI Fine
Abigail Clark, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering
Professionalism: Rare Earth Element Collection by a Biocompatible Adsorption-Flow System
Tucker Craig, Mechanical Engineering