Statler College team “fired up” with first victory in annual University Ceramic Mug Contest

Kevin Tennant, Mason Cavalier and Dimitri Shultz proudly holding their mugs at the University Ceramic Mug Contest in Columbus, Ohio. (WVU Photo supplied)

The West Virginia University Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources chapters of the Material Advantage and Materials Research Society took home their first win in the 2025 iteration of the Materials Science and Technology Conference’s University Ceramic Mug Contest in Columbus, Ohio.

Story by Rachel Brosky, Media Manager - WVU Office of Strategic Communications and Marketing
Photos supplied

Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources

Hosted annually by the Keramos National Professional Ceramic Engineering Fraternity, the purpose of the University Ceramic Mug Contest is to create friendly competition between engineering students by testing their prowess in making strong, mechanically reliable and aesthetically designed ceramic mugs.

The competing mugs must be made in the current academic year and are judged on appearance and their ability to stay intact when dropped from various heights.

Materials and manufacturing presented significant challenges for participants.

Each mug must be constructed solely with ceramic or glass materials, without any metal, plastic, paint, organics, or non-ceramic materials. The students could not use any commercially made parts, such as rods or fiber mats. Raw materials such as powders, liquid precursors, fibers and chemicals were permitted to be purchased to aid the construction but any woven textile fiber architecture to reinforce the mugs were not. The mugs also had to be food-safe, containing no acutely toxic materials, such as arsenic. They also had to be fired at 1000 °C or higher and no additions to the mugs could be made after firing.

The final mugs had to be single, monolithic pieces, with sizes no more than 25 centimeters in height and 20 centimeters in diameter with the year of the competition carved into them, with the ability to hold between 350 and 650 milliliters of liquid.

“Opportunities like this one give students a chance to see another side of engineering that they rarely get in their coursework,” said Mason Cavalier, mechanical engineering major and vice president of the WVU MA/MRS chapter.

“I would say it’s 30% mechanical design, and 70% material design and processing.  If the mug you bring in isn’t the correct composition, hasn’t been fired correctly, or has major defects in its structure, you will not do well in the competition.”

Cavalier, along with students from the Mechanical, Materials and Aerospace Engineering department — Dimitri Shultz, Kevin Tennant, Davis Warmuth, Matthew Kraska, Izzy Farinash and chemical engineering major Colton Balog created three mugs for this year’s competition, with the winning design surviving a drop of 10 feet 4 inches.

Shultz, Cavalier, and Tennant entered the designs, alongside 42 other mugs created by other universities. WVU MA/MRS has scored within the top three competing universities since 2022, but this is the first year they took home the top prize.

Unlike previous years, WVU had no MA/MRS members experienced in ceramic casting, which made the month and a half creation timeline more intimidating. Despite the pressure, the students were able to come up with their winning designs using a previous mold and fine-tuning the composition and firing temperature for the mugs.

With some help from the WVU College of Creative Arts and Media’s Ceramics adviser Robert “Boomer” Moore, they were able to fire them in time to travel to Columbus. 

“My favorite part of the competition was seeing how many people were excited and engaged in this type of competition,” Cavalier said. “At least in my experience, there aren’t a lot of students that are interested in these types of material heavy events, so to see a large group of people like that was amazing.”

For more information on MA/MRS, visit materialadvantage.orgs.wvu.edu.

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