The UNLV College Engineering celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Fred and Harriet Cox Senior Design Competition on Thursday, May 8, with nearly 150 students across 44 teams presenting their prototypes to a panel of industry judges. 

It’s a pinnacle event designed to help students stimulate innovation and foster skills in entrepreneurship and business, with judges choosing winners based on innovation, commercial potential, sustainability, and overall presentation quality. The biannual event also honors the Senior Design teams that earned first- and second-place prizes across discipline-specific categories

Winning teams were recognized at the Spring 2025 Senior Design awards dinner on Friday, May 9 where nearly $12,000 in prize money was awarded across all categories. One prototype — the Dual Rope Assisted Braking Device — took home four prizes, sweeping nearly all of the special award categories with recognition for its commercial potential, sustainability, and innovation. The prototype, which was designed to make rappelling safer and simpler, was developed by Samuel Surprenant, an entertainment engineering and design major.

The following teams were honored at the Spring 2025 Senior Design awards dinner:

Grand Prize: Heat-Be-Gone

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction

• 1st Place: Mai-Tie
• 2nd Place: Story County Conservation Pedestrian Steel Bridge

Computer Science

• 1st Place: Rebel Remind
• 2nd Place: PRISM

Electrical and Computer Engineering

• 1st Place: DigiFilm
• 2nd Place: Fresh Eye

Entertainment Engineering and Design

• Dual Rope Assisted Braking Device

Interdisciplinary

• Pulse Jet Drone Interceptor

Mechanical Engineering

• 1st Place: Rocket Engine Torch Igniter
• 2nd Place: ExoPush

Sustainability, Commercial Potential and Innovation:

• Dual Rope Assisted Braking Device

Popular Choice

• Heat-Be-Gone

Team Congeniality

• SunFlow Dynamics