Behrend teams sweep plastics design competition

ERIE, Pa. — Three teams from Penn State Behrend swept the Student Design Division at the annual Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE) Blow Molding Conference in Pittsburgh. Their projects — a rifle stock, reflective pavement markers and a floating hydroponic garden bed – were judged on novelty, feasibility and the quality of documentation.

A Behrend team has won the competition every year since 2006.

The top prize included a $1,000 award. Nick Vitelli, a lecturer in plastics engineering technology at Behrend and a 2005 graduate of the program, uses that as incentive for his students.

“This design project is embedded into a junior-level course in plastics packaging,” Vitelli said. “The assignment is a class requirement; submitting it to SPE is optional. I ask the students, ‘Why not try to get paid for doing your homework?’”

Students have six weeks to design a blow-molded project. They have to demonstrate technical principles and build a compelling narrative around their design.

“Our students do well because their reports go beyond drawings and calculations,” Vitelli said. “They back up their ideas with specifications, research and context. With this year’s winner — the AquaBloom hydroponic bed — the team didn’t just explain how it worked: They explained why it mattered.”

Attention to detail and a problem-solving mindset are two reasons that graduates of the Behrend plastics program are in high demand, Vitelli said. Many of his students secure job offers in their junior year — often through internships that lead directly to full-time positions.

“Companies are impressed and want to keep them,” he said.

Plastics manufacturers and the graduates who work for them increasingly have to navigate questions about sustainability and the life cycle of their products. Vitelli sees that not only as a challenge, but as an opportunity for innovation.

With support from student researchers, he is leading projects in recycling applications, from recovering materials in fiber optic cables and depleted solar panels to partnering with companies on more sustainable agricultural films.

“Our students are more sustainability-minded than ever,” he said.

“We can’t solve problems by simply complaining about plastics,” he added. “We solve them by making better materials and designing smarter solutions. That’s what our students are learning how to do — and competitions like this prove that they are ready.”