St. Ansgar Team Advances to Engineering Machine Design Midwest Championships
Launch the media gallery 1 playerOn Friday, March 6, St. Ansgar High School hosted the 8th annual Engineering Machine Design Contest in partnership with the Minnesota State Engineering Center of Excellence. The top three teams from this year’s competition earned the opportunity to compete in the Engineering Machine Design Midwest Championships, hosted by Minnesota State University, Mankato in Mankato on April 7.
St. Ansgar students Joe Clevenger, Alenna Nelson, Jazzmine Olson, Lanie Hanna, Ava Falk, Alexis Frein, Derek Hemann, Jacey Johnston, Makenna Norby, Lila Powers, and Christain Stocker make up the team that earned third-place honors. Teams from Sumner-Fredericksburg and West Hancock placed first and second, respectively.
The Engineering Machine Design Contest is a uniquely engaging engineering competition that encourages teamwork and creative, out-of-the-box problem solving. The event highlights Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math (STEAM) concepts as teams design and build machines capable of completing a simple task. The 2026 theme, “Engineering Across Eras – Innovating Industrial Engineering Through Time,” challenged students to draw inspiration from engineering innovations throughout history.
The St. Ansgar team also received the theme award “RECYCLE Above & Beyond,” recognizing the team whose determination and creative use of recycled materials stood out.
Congratulations to the students and their team leader, Devin Schwiesow, and best of luck at the April 7 championships!