Amidst the quiet of a peaceful spring weekend, campus thrummed with energy throughout the night and day. Rows and rows of Post-It notes plastered the glass walls of Fowler Academic Building classrooms, bright remnants of frenetic brainstorm sessions. Scribbling frantically on whiteboards, Rose-Hulman students honed their entrepreneurship skills from ideation to presentation in less than 48 hours during the second-annual Engineerathon weekend and competition March 13-15.

Hosted by the Rose Innovative Student Entrepreneurs (RISE) club, the Engineerathon event created a network of more than 100 aspiring entrepreneurs through company talks and two competition tracks, planned and developed entirely by students.

"Entrepreneurship doesn't mean that you have to have a successful business or selling a product, but it can just be how do you really make sure what you're building is really solving a big problem that your users are dealing with," said Deven Wells, a junior engineering design major and president of RISE. "RISE is about entrepreneurship, but we're also about innovation and helping students pursue…some kind of opportunity to really express themselves, find what their interests are."

The first competition track enabled students to develop their existing startups, under the guidance of entrepreneurial mentors, and pitch them before a panel of judges. Top teams received help in filing a provisional patent for their product.

"We have a small fund for helping student startups file a provisional patent from Eli Lilly (and Company)," said Wells. "Working with IU School of Law and their law clinic, we're going to have a collaborative between (them and) Rose student startups."

Engineerathon's second competition paired teams of students with industry mentors to solve an actual problem at the company. Teams met their mentor and developed their problem statement during Friday night's kickoff event and were tasked with producing a functional prototype by Sunday afternoon. They immediately began brainstorming their solutions, often diving into projects outside their primary area of study.

"That was actually really cool," said Mugdha Reddy Vuyyuru, a sophomore studying computer science. "We used sticky notes. All of us took a few minutes to put down our ideas. We came up with a solution of our own using all of our ideas together."

She worked with Mackenzie Racop, Avi Kapila, Binh Tran, and Kunaal Tyagi on a project from AiPRL Assist to improve the interactions between retail employees and customers. The team proposed a headset, worn by the employee, connected to an AI-powered database that could provide an employee with answers to customer questions.

"It's a solution that does not also remove the labor," said Tyagi, a senior computer engineering major.

Their team was one of 17 that huddled across campus, utilizing every resource available to them. Some found their way to the Branam and Kremer Innovation Centers, making use of the machine shops and equipment to produce their prototype. Others made classrooms their campgrounds, poring over their computer-aided design (CAD) files. At nearly every tabletop, drills and 3D printed prototypes were scattered among bags of chips and cans of energy drinks.

"The fun is a lot about the engineering. Getting the experience of actually applying some of what we learn and also learning along the way…brainstorming for days and then actually applying, creating, and fabricating the products is a very fun process," said Minh Nguyen, a sophomore mechanical engineering major. "Even though there are obviously a bunch of struggles along the way, I think we enjoy figuring out the solutions to those problems."

Nguyen's team included Minh Nguyen, Phu Bui, Logan Wenzel, Amol Rama, Raph Okur, and George Krasner and worked on a project for Bastian Solutions. They were tasked with optimizing a conveyor belt used in manufacturing to simplify the process and reduce physical strain on employees.

The fervent efforts of the students impressed even mentors who had been in the same places less than a year ago. Andrew Nichols (BSME, 2025; MSEMGT, 2025) and Ryan Brown (CS, 2025), along with Elijah Johnson (OE, 2025) and Evan O'Brien (CS, 2025) founded Zernike Precision Optics, an optics manufacturing startup, during their senior year at Rose-Hulman and have been working full-time at the startup since their May 2025 graduation. They tasked several Engineerathon teams with helping them develop a special mixer for polishing lenses to relieve a manufacturing bottleneck.

"Within a couple hours, they became more subject matter experts on it than we are," said Nichols. "They challenge your thinking. They don't really accept the answer of 'That's just how we do it.'"

Nichols continued, "There's a shift here of challenging people to think bigger, solve bigger problems, do harder things. The education here rivals any of your name-brand coastal schools, and it's really just that mindset."

That audacious mindset, combined with the excitement of innovation, powered the students through their presentations to the judges.

"It's basically Greatest Floor, but a lot more engineering-based. It's a lot more fun, too," said mechanical engineering junior George Krasner, cheekily referencing Rose-Hulman's annual 24-hour event challenging on-campus residents to a series of puzzles, games, and activities.

Engineerathon, a tinkerer's toybox, provided an expanse of opportunity for students to stretch their limits and apply what they have learned in the classroom to industry and entrepreneurship, making memories and models every step of the way. The event builds on an entrepreneurial ecosystem at Rose-Hulman, which includes opportunities such as Sawmill Society Weekend, Startup Weekend, and the future Innovation Grove district.

Engineerathon Results

Startup Pitch Competition
1st Place – Platform P1: Adam Jirovec and Davis Rubel

Industry Competition
In the industry competition, 17 teams of students solved problems for five company partners. Each company named an outstanding solution to their problem, and three awards were presented for the best projects overall. Winning teams received Arduino kits.

Overall Awards:

1st Place - Gabe Stille, Dominic Nguyen, Dominic Cimino, David Wonderlich, Ian Szpisjak, Tyler Furuichi (Zernike Precision Optics)

2nd Place - Aakash Goswami, Timonthy Wong, Garrett Vana, Jp Vestjens (AiPRL Assist)

3rd Place - Mackenzie Racop, Mugdha Vuyyuru, Avi Kapila, Kunaal Tyagi, Binh Tran (AiPRL Assist)


Top Projects by Company:

AiPRL Assist - Aakash Goswami, Timonthy Wong, Garrett Vana, Jp Vestjens

Center for Circular Agriculture - Miki Harding, Zhiyun (Bill) Liu

PurePet - Elliot Harris, Cana Brown, Autumn Korey, Frank Steinhart, Ananya Annush

Bastian Solutions - Minh Nguyen, Phu Bui, Logan Wenzel, Amol Rama, Raph Okur, George Krasner

Zernike Precision Optics - Gabe Stille, Dominic Nguyen, Dominic Cimino, David Wonderlich, Ian Szpisjak, Tyler Furuichi