The tradition continues. Michigan State University has again achieved a national prize at the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Student Design Contest.
Mia Vollkommer won first place at the 2025 Student Design Competition and received the A. McLaren White Award for best overall individual design. Spartan Lauren Petrie won the same first-place prize in 2024.
The 2025 competition problem challenged undergraduate chemical engineering students to develop a technical design for producing blue hydrogen. Participants were tasked with designing a process that converts natural gas into blue hydrogen using an Auto-Thermal Reforming (ATR) reaction process, integrated with a carbon dioxide capture system.
R. Mark Worden, professor of chemical engineering and biomedical engineering, said students in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science (ChEMS) think the annual competition provides an excellent training experience.
“The contest is developed with input from industrial experts to be realistic and require application of a wide range of economic, calculation, and evaluation skills. Winning this competition is among the best professional credentials a graduating senior chemical engineer can have on their résumé,” Worden added.
Vollkommer earned a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering with a concentration in food science in April 2025. Among her MSU honors, she received a Board of Trustees’ Award for achieving a 4.0 GPA. She was a member of the Honors College. After graduation, she joined Nestlé Purina in Iowa as a chemical engineer and management development associate.
She will be recognized at the Student Awards Ceremony at the 2025 AIChE Annual Student Conference in Boston on Sunday, Nov. 2. She will receive a $500 prize and a certificate.
About AIChE
AIChE is a professional society of more than 60,000 members in more than 110 countries.
Its members work in corporations, universities and government using their knowledge of chemical processes to develop products that benefit society.
MSU has an active student chapter of AIChE and is considered among the most successful chapters in the country. Members have won a variety of chapter and individual honors through the years. For more information about the MSU chapter, visit its website.
Written by Patricia Mroczek
MSU College of Engineering Media and Public Relations page