MARCH 2025

The West Virginia University Mine Rescue Team, based at the Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources, was announced as the best in the world at the international 2025 Intercollegiate Mine Emergency Rescue Development competition held Feb. 17-21. This is the team’s third consecutive win.

WVU students in Tom Devine’s software engineering class got a crash course last semester in building the plane as they flew it, harnessing their budding coding skills to create functional web applications that utilize real-world data. This spring semester will be the second iteration of the project within Statler College, tasking students with working together to learn Microsoft Azure to create and host a web application that uses NOAA’s weather and climate data in some way.

The Statler College hosted the 2025 VEX Robotics competition, where 71 teams put their coding and engineering skills to the test for a chance to qualify for the upcoming state and regional tournaments. Winning teams have the opportunity to advance all the way to the VEX Robotics World Championship hosted in Dallas, Texas from April 25-May 3.

Each academic year, the Honors College welcomes a new cohort of faculty fellows to help its students to seek out new knowledge and connections, explore diverse ideas and apply what they learn to real-world problems. The special topics courses are open to all Honors College students, including first-time freshmen.

The Bucca'neer Mining Team, composed of 2024 graduates from the Statler College Thommy Bafunye, Ethan Mann, Josh Riffle and Odin Smith, brought home the gold in the national Senior Student Design Award competition. This makes them the eighth WVU team to do so in the last decade.

Students from the Statler College participated in the first-ever Tech Duels debating the topic of AI Unplugged: Navigating the Future and Ethical Implications of Generative AI at WVU on March 7, 2025.

This month we’re excited to introduce alumnus Gbolahan 'Bugzy' Idowu, who graduated with a B.S. in Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering in 2013 and a M.S. in Mechanical Engineering in 2017.

When WVU alumni couple David and Linda Cooper decided to support and empower future engineers through a $100,000 gift, they wanted it to be meaningful, impactful and available sooner rather than later. The David F. ’68 and Linda L. ’85 Cooper Endowed Scholarship is available to undergraduate students or incoming freshmen majoring in or intending to major in chemical and biomedical engineering at the Statler College.

Dear friends and colleagues,  

It's hard to believe we are midway through the spring semester, and I'm very excited to share the impressive achievements that happened this month!

In this edition of EngineeringWV Wired, I am thrilled to share that our Mine Rescue team was crowned world champions for the third consecutive year. Congratulations to all of them! We could not be more proud of this fantastic and dedicated group of students and their team advisors. Also, congratulations to the mining engineering students from the Bucca'neer Team for dominating their 13th consecutive win at the PCMIA and SME Capstone Design competition. We are so proud of our students and all they have accomplished.

This month, we hosted two competitions at the Statler College. One of these events was the VEX Robotics Competition, which attracted 71 teams comprising university, high school, and middle school students. This competition offered a fantastic opportunity for students of all ages to learn and enhance their skills in robotics. Additionally, we introduced our inaugural Tech Duels competition, focusing on "Navigating the Future and the Ethical Implications of Generative AI." Equipping our students with the necessary tools and skills for their professional growth is our top priority.

Speaking of tools for professional growth, our students are enhancing their coding skills by developing functional web applications that utilize real-world NOAA data. This initiative is part of a WVU Cloud Analytics Faculty Fellowship awarded to Tom Devine, Assistant Teaching Professor in the Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering.

With so many remarkable accomplishments, I am thankful for our Statler College community. Their resilience, determination, and unwavering drive to succeed are truly inspiring, and they make me very proud every day.

I can't wait to see what our faculty, staff, and students will have in store for us next month!

Lastly, WVU will host its eighth annual Day of Giving on March 26. I encourage each of you to get involved so that together we can create opportunities for our students and faculty.

Let's Go!

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Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources | West Virginia University
1374 Evansdale Drive | P.O. Box 6070 | Morgantown, WV 26506-6070
PHONE: 304.293.4821 | EMAIL: engineeringwv@mail.wvu.edu

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