Students from the Virginia Tech Mining and Minerals Engineering department won first place in the 2020 SME/NSSGA Student Design Competition, beating out nine other teams from mining engineering programs throughout the country.

This year’s Hokie Design team was comprised of seniors Brendan Brogan, Kelley Lazor, Alex Norris, Alex Pfreundschuh, and Michael Shanley. Tom Huddleston was the junior class member on the team.

The annual competition is hosted by the Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration and the National Stone, Sand, and Gravel Association and is designed to reflect the kinds of challenges most students will face upon entering the mining industry. Teams are judged on presentation skills, creativity, understanding of aggregate mining processes, and thoughtful methodology.

The competition is a grueling two-phase, team-based, problem-solving activity which incorporates a technical design followed by an oral presentation. The problem highlights the challenges and opportunities associated with operating a sand and gravel quarry, developing an overall design plan, and optimizing the operating methods and economics. Students work on the problem from the perspective of an engineering consulting team, responsible for the development of the pit and mineral processing plant configuration.

team presenting to judges during Phase 2
During Phase 2, held at the 2020 SME Annual Conference and Expo in Phoenix, the team gave an oral presentation on their design modification to a panel of competition judges.

Phase 1 of the competition took place during the fall semester over a 21-day period. During this time, the team had 35 hours of work time per person to work on the project and which culminated in a final feasibility study.  The study was submitted to judges for review, who determined which teams advanced to the final Phase 2 held during SME’s annual conference and expo, which this year took place in February in Phoenix, Arizona.

During the second phase, each team was presented with a new challenge in the form of a constraint or modification to their existing mine design. The teams were given a set amount of time to evaluate the problem, formulate a solution, provide for alternative solutions, and prepare an oral presentation of their altered design. This evaluation was then given as a presentation to a group of judges drawn from industry and who also evaluated the first round solution submissions.

Nine teams from mining engineering programs throughout the country, competed in Phase 1. Six of those teams qualified to participate in the final phase. Along with Virginia Tech’s first place win, the University of Arizona won 2nd place, and the University of Kentucky took 3rd.