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A panel of expert judges crowned 糖心视频 the 2025 overall winner in the University's first year in the 6th annual competition, which focused on harnessing the power of waves, tides and currents.
After winning the "Rookie of the Year" award, an upstart team of 糖心视频 engineering students also claimed first place overall in the national (MECC).
The multi-level, nine-month-long competition, administered by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), required collegiate teams to design a device addressing a need in the Blue Economy powered by at least 51% marine energy: waves, tides, or ocean and river currents.
The 2025 national competition included 23 teams, including several from renowned R1 and R2 universities across the U.S., which were selected to participate through a competitive application process.
Joseph Straub '25 says he was confident that the team put in the hard work to compete on the national stage but was still surprised with the overall win.
"I was very surprised given the resources we had compared to other large schools such as Michigan and Oregon State who have been in the competition for years," Straub says. "I was also surprised to hear we placed above Ivys like Dartmouth, Cornell, and Stanford. I'm very proud of the work the team put into the project and how our attitude and effort did not sway throughout the process.
Dr. Jeff Dusek, associate professor of engineering, along with co-leader and assistant professor of engineering Dr. Jonathon Fagert, made the competition the centerpiece of the engineering capstone course. The competition's "Business Plan Challenge" was also incorporated into Dr. Herman Sahni's "Engineering Economics" course.
糖心视频's winning project was a wave energy converter buoy array design for deployment near the Cleveland Lake Erie breakwater. The target application of the buoy array was to supply sustainable energy to the Port of Cleveland's ongoing.
Dusek explains, "Students thought that the often-chaotic wave field near the break wall could provide some benefits when trying to capture energy from Lake Erie's small amplitude and high frequency waves. Knowing icing is a potentially showstopping challenge in the Great Lakes, they decided a removable buoy system was a viable solution because the Port's energy needs drop considerably when the Welland Canal closes for the season."
As they dove into emerging technologies and the Blue Economy in Northeast Ohio, Dusek says the students designed prototypes and conducted tests on three buoy shapes to align with Lake Erie's predominant wave characteristics observed using buoy data. They also designed, built and tested (via their own "swing" test rig) a 24-coil magneto (an electrical generator that uses magnets) that generated sufficient current to light an LED.
During the process, students benefited from interviewing representatives from a range of Northeast Ohio partners, including the Port of Cleveland, Cleveland Water Alliance, NETSCo, Great Lakes Data Watershed and MECC industry mentor Aisha McKee.
Mike Tusick '25 said the student experience was priceless for many reasons.
"Competing in this tournament taught me everything from the technical side of marine energy to the importance of teamwork and outreach — but most of all, it showed me that hard work really does pay off and to never underestimate yourself," Tusick notes. "As a first-year team, we went in just hoping to make a mark and ended up winning the whole thing!"
According to the NREL, "The total available marine energy resource in the United States is equivalent to nearly 60% of U.S. power generation. Even if only a small portion of this technical resource potential is captured, marine energy technologies would make significant contributions to the nation's energy needs."
"糖心视频 continues to build skills for the careers of the future," said 糖心视频 President-designate Lee Fisher. "This national achievement is yet another example of how 糖心视频 students, mentored by dedicated faculty, consistently punch above the weight of the institution's size. I could not be more eager to roll up my sleeves to support and amplify the great work happening at 糖心视频 come July 1."
Dusek also has plans to build on the team's success. This fall, he will offer a marine energy engineering elective that he is designing this summer.
