For their innovative solutions to real-world problems, students from Marshall University and Cabell Midland High School took home top honors in the 2025 West Virginia Makes Festival Design Challenge. The annual event was presented the Marshall Advanced Manufacturing Center (MAMC) with financial support from the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation.
In the adult category, Tanner Foster, a Teays Valley sophomore engineering major at Marshall University, earned first-place bragging rights and $2,500 for a self-charging wireless mechanical bicycle gear derailer; its battery charges as the rider peddles and switches gears.
Marshall University students Colby Perry, Brian Taylor and recent graduate Austin Woodrum captured second place and $750 for designing and developing a cybersecurity Strike game in which one team creates a secure network for critical computer infrastructure around Huntington while the opposing team tries to hack the network.
Julie Schaer of Hurricane earned third place and $250 for her self-built harmonograph, a mechanical drawing apparatus that uses pendulums and weights to create intricate geometric drawings.
In the youth category, Maxwell Noble, an 11th-grade student at Cabell Midland High School, was awarded first place and $300 for his creation: the Grip-in-ator. The competitive weightlifting device, designed and 3D printed by Noble, is a lightweight barbell grip attachment that allows the barbell to rotate inside the grips when lifting it to reduce wrist pain and tendonitis.
The team of McDowell County Gifted Program students was awarded second place and $200 for its Robotics Petting Zoo that connects animals by a tram transit system. Students used cardboard and chop saws to manufacture favorite animals – from pandas and penguins – that interact with users when they’re petted or fed. All activities along the tram route are triggered and powered by electronics through block coding, servos and light sensors.
Kellen Carte, a high school student from Winfield, earned third place and $100 for a Lego turret with 3D printed parts. The turret, powered by servos and a motor that works by remote control, pivots and shoots targeted projectiles.
MAMC presented the 12th annual West Virginia Makes Festival Oct. 24 on the Huntington campus of Marshall University. In addition to the Design Challenge, the salute to creativity and ingenuity featured interactive displays, hands-on making activities, handmade artisanal crafts from across the region, music and the popular pumpkin drop presented by Marshall’s June Harless Center.
Oct. 29, 2025
