Capstone engineering projects take center stage at Montana State

BOZEMAN - Nineteen teams recently presented their senior capstone engineering projects at Montana State University's twice-yearly Design Fair. Projects ranged from a money-saving 3D printing filament recycler to a complicated but functional advanced drive chain engineered to make obsolete the derailleur on a mountain bike.

Capstone projects, which are funded by sponsors, demonstrate in practical ways the skills and knowledge acquired during students' years of engineering education at MSU. All seniors in MSU's Norm Asbjornson College of Engineering who are majoring in mechanical engineering, mechanical engineering and technology, or computer science participate in projects that culminate in the end-of-semester Design Fair.

"For students in the engineering college, we like to say that they not only study engineering, they also do engineering," said Brett Gunnink, dean of MSU's engineering college. "Capstone projects are the final demonstration that NACOE engineering grads are ready to do engineering."

A four-member team comprising mechanical engineering majors Alex Adolph from Billings, William Bayless from Bozeman, Jordan Hernandez from Pompeys Pillar and Wyatt Dickey from Durham, North Carolina, added interesting enhancements to barrels used in the rodeo barrel racing event.

"Our barrel has four cameras to record and livestream, then it has two motion sensors that will track the competitors' time splits around the barrel, then an LCD panel that can display the time splits or show advertisements," Adolph said.

"Our barrel is slightly smaller [in circumference] and slightly taller than a normal racing barrel," Bayless said. "But everything we put into our barrel should fit in a normal barrel."

Hernandez described their project as "very successful."

"What we came up with is exactly what the sponsor wanted," he said.

An individual who plans to commercialize the enhanced barrel design sponsored the project.

Another team, sponsored by a Bozeman-based specialty bakery Furrow and Fly, designed and built a conveyor system that removes remaining cooking oil from still-hot English muffins then cools them to room temperature using a household air conditioner designed to sit on a windowsill. The muffins need to be room temperature and relatively oil-free before packaging them.

The team comprises mechanical engineering majors Elijah Grimstad and Martin Ruane from Richland, Washington, and mechanical engineering technology majors Andrew Harness from Seattle and Gavin Morgan from Billings.

"I think the cooling [function] of our project is successful," Grimstad said. "The drying aspect could use a little bit more time to get all the way there, but I think it does an adequate job as it is now."

Harness concurred.

"It operates just fine, but if we had another month and a few more hundred dollars, we could make it better," he said. "There's always room for improvement, and time and money almost always solve that."

Ruane said the extra money could go toward a larger air conditioner, which would reduce the cooling time - a goal of the project.

"But our project meets the specs," he said.

Morgan said the conveyor belt that delivers the English muffins to the cooling area could have been a trouble area had the owners of Furrow and Fly not specified a potential problem.

"They have different flavors of muffins, so cross-contamination of those flavors is a concern," he said. "Our conveyor belt can be sped up to make wiping it down [between batches] a quick process."

The engineering college's spring semester Design Fair will be held April 30, 2026. The event is free and open to the public. For information on sponsoring a capstone project, visit the engineering college's website.

"Common sponsors are local and regional businesses and organizations, MSU researchers, state and federal agencies and labs, and individuals," according to the website. "Generally, anyone with an engineering or computer science problem may be a good fit."