April 29, 2025
Mizzou students across disciplines have been recognized across the country at spring conferences and competitions for their accomplishments in their fields and commitment to the engineering profession.
Mizzou Engineers are known for their energetic willingness to ask questions, build novel solutions and explore their curiosities. Student organizations are some of the best outlets for this exploration because they open doors for students to engage in hands-on learning outside the classroom or lab.
This spring, student organizations have been recognized for their participation in competitions and events put on throughout the year. Mizzou Engineering teams will continue to compete throughout the summer, highlighting their technical expertise and hands-on skills.
Scroll to discover some of our most active communities within the College and learn why they’ve been recognized.
Mizzou American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) – Sustainable Solutions
Mizzou’s Sustainable Solutions team of Mason Sledge and Nia Spears won first place in the ASCE Sustainable Solutions Regional Competition and won the fan favorite category for Most Livable Site.
The competition challenges students to incorporate sustainable solutions into everyday problems. This year, students were tasked with designing a mixed-use redevelopment within a 5-story building previously used as commercial office space.
While at the ASCE Mid-America Student Conference, Sledge and Spears highlighted their proposed building with a poster presentation and offered deeper insights during an interview about their project.
Mizzou Computing Association (MCA)
Eleven students traveled with MCA to the BSidesKC annual conference, an event designed for security engineers, IT professionals and their affiliates to discuss advancing knowledge in information security. Four students earned awards for their performance in Capture the Flag (CTF) challenges, in which participants dig through data to find a “flag.”
Ashton Wooster placed first in the Cloud Forensics CTF event. In the Corelight CTF event, Tanner Kuchar placed second, Carter Cox placed third and Gage Smith placed fourth.
The students in attendance also attended keynote speeches and workshops covering aerospace, radio frequencies, open-source intelligence, mental health, hardware hacking, soldering and lockpicking.
MCA Competitive Programming
MCA Competitive Programming brought home the Best in Show award for their smart scheduling assistant, “MizWizard,” from the Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges (CSCC) hackathon at Drake University.
Teams were tasked with designing an application that could enhance students’ experience at their college. MCA’s application created a dynamic 4-year course flowchart to provide students with more accurate predictions of course offerings and help them plan their course schedules.
CCSC also hosted a programming contest, in which teams were given seven coding challenges to solve using one computer with no internet access. Three teams from Mizzou competed. The “Data-baes” (team members Angela Amaro, Alissa Chimienti and Alyssa Schaefer) placed second of 17 teams. The “Ones and ze-bros” (Carson Mensink, Braeden Songer and Alyssa Norrenberns) secured sixth place and “Cache me if you can” (Chris Crowder, David Marino and Connor Souders) finished 11th.
Mizzou Engineering Student Council (MESC)
MESC won the “Best Outreach Event” award at the 2025 National Association of Engineering Student Councils Engineering Leadership Summit at the University of Minnesota.
The organization received the award for their recurring participation in the Rootin’ Tootin’ Chili Cookoff for the Boys and Girls Club of Columbia, as well as their volunteer work at the Interfaith Gardens. In addition to the award, MESC also won the bid to host the next NAESC conference.
At the conference, students took part in workshops, and attended keynote addresses and industry site tours.
Mizzou American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)
Mizzou ASME earned third place at the Innovative Additive Manufacturing 3D Challenge at Dallas College this April. Jack Neidt, a long-time member of the club, earned second place in the elevator pitch competition.
The team participated in the Discus Launched Glider Design Competition with their glider, “Mizzeus.” The competition required teams develop a glider that maximized hang time, conducted aerobatics and landed in a specific location. The rules also rewarded construction using 3D printed parts.
The competition was riddled with poor weather conditions, and the team says the competing teams created a collaborative community to overcome the added challenge. Next year, Mizzou ASME plans to take part in two competitions instead of just one.
Mizzou American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE)
Fifteen students from Mizzou AIChE attended the AIChE Mid-America Student Regional Conference at the University of Oklahoma. Two teams competed in the trivia event, with the Fugacity Fighters (team members Anjola Ojo, Rob McKnight, Aaron Holloway and Marissa Moore) earning third place.
Eight members also competed in the Chem-E-Car competition with their vehicle, RaiCoupe. The car was powered by a zinc alkaline battery and stopped by an iodine clock.